Becoming a Demon?
by axellon2008
Summary: Naruto is framed for a crime that he didn't commit and the aftermath will change his whole life as well as his entire being. Elements of Inuyasha. HIATUS
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Chapter I: Blackout

A pair of blue eyes opened to view the starry night sky above. After a moment of contemplation, the young form of Uzumaki Naruto sat up to look at his surroundings. It was night-time and he was in an unknown alley. Many questions ran through the blonde child's young mind. 'How did I get here? Where is here? What time is it?'. The reasoning for these questions was due to the fact that the last thing the boy remembered was getting ready to go to bed. He had no idea how he had gotten into an alley, nor why he was currently sitting in a pile of garbage bags.

Naruto began to stand up but his hand, which he had placed on a nearby garbage pail for support, slipped and he nearly fell. Curious, Naruto looked to his hand and noticed it was covered in a slippery substance. Walking forward into the moonlight, Naruto stretched his hand out and, to his shock, it was covered in blood. He quickly looked towards the garbage pail to find a smeared and bloody hand-print.

Even to his five-year old mind, it was clear that something was wrong. His entire hand and some of his forearm was covered with blood and it was still fresh. Taking a few moments he looked himself over and the surrounding area. There was no sign of injury on him and no sign of blood in the surrounding area. 'Was the blood even his? If it wasn't his then whose was it?' These questions now were added onto the list of questions currently circulating through his mind. Along with these new questions a deep sense of foreboding passed through the boy and he shivered at the possible answers to these thoughts.

Currently the blonde boy could only think of one course of action that he could take. He needed to get to the Old Man and that meant that he needed to make his way to the Hokage Tower. 'Hokage-jiji would know what was going on.' Naruto knew from prior experience that no matter how much the rest of the village hated him he could always trust and count on the kind Old Man in the white robes and red hat.

Naruto made his way to the end of the alley and looked around. The street was quiet. Seemingly no one was around and the only light came from the moon and a couple of street lights. This didn't mean that there weren't ninja in the area but he needed to get to the tower as fast as he could. With the both sides of the street being lined with tall shops he could not see the Hokage Monument from where he currently was. He scanned the names of the nearby shops instantly knew where he was in relation to the tower. There were virtually no stores in Konoha that would tolerate the boy. Nearly all would kick him out the moment he stepped foot inside. The rest would just charge him exorbitant prices for all but the simplest of merchandises.

Just yesterday he had been kicked out of a weapons store that was located about a block away. He had wanted to buy some practice kunai and shuriken as he would be attending the ninja academy the following year and he wanted to be as prepared as he could be. He had also seen several kids playing with the wooden practice toys several days ago. It looked fun. Naruto had wanted to join them but he knew that if he got close an adult would chase him away or the children would recognize him as a person whom their parents had told them to stay away from. No matter where he went in the village everyone seemed to recognize him and instantly they would glare, mutter, utterly ignore him, or attempt to make him get out of their site. He still had no idea why he was so hated.

Wrestling his thoughts back to the current situation, Naruto decided that the streets were relatively safe and started making his way to the Hokage Tower. Even at night the Old Man was probably still there finishing his paper work. Naruto still had no idea why he didn't just make someone else do it. The man was in charge of the whole village after all and everyone loved and respected him. One would think that people would lineup single file to fill out the Hokage's paperwork for him. At least they would when Naruto became Hokage. Deciding that the street was about as safe as it was going to get he exited the alley and made his way through village at a fast pace. He wiped his bloody hand off on his shorts as best as he could but it was still covered in dried blood that would not come out without washing. He reached the end of the street that he was on and rounded the corner. From the street that he was now on, the Hokage tower was now in view. The lights were still on in the tower which was a good indication that Hokage-jiji was still in.

Even though the tower was now in view, the boys sense of panic and unease was not lifted. He wasn't traveling that fast and he had not traveled that far but he still seemed out of breath and his hear was thundering in his chest. Naruto had note reached halfway to the tower when he felt the distinct impression of being watched. Not even a second after he heard shouting behind him. Several people shinobi were coming up fast behind him and shouting for him to stop, so naturally Naruto sped up. He was now panicked more than ever. The Hokage Tower was still out of reach and now he was being chased. Being that Naruto was only five years old, the pursuers were gaining fast and they had announced themselves as the being with the Konoha Military Police Force which just made Naruto run faster as he did not like the police force and they liked him even less.

Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw a shadow begin growing on ground next to him as he ran. As it grew he only managed to realize what exactly it was when he heard a slight 'whoosh' sound and a pain in the back of he neck. Someone had pounced on Naruto from the roof tops and whoever they were, they were much faster than the police force. Naruto's vision blurred and he lost consciousness right before he was grabbed by a strong arm.

The dog masked ANBU who had grabbed Naruto informed the police force that he would take the boy to the Hokage and that they should go back on patrol. The ANBU radioed in that he had captured the boy and was heading back to the tower. The silver haired ANBU looked down at the unconscious boy in his arm and wondered what the boy had gotten himself into now. It wasn't his night to watch out for the boy and he would need to find out which ANBU member was scheduled to watch the boy and why they obviously weren't doing their job. He had received orders over the radio to find and capture the boy and take him to the tower. Specifics about why Naruto was to be captured were not given but Kakashi was very concerned with the dried blood on the boys hand and the panicked state the blonde seemed to be in. "What have you gotten yourself into Naruto?" was all the ANBU said before taking to the roof and heading to the tower to report to Hokage-sama.

* * *

Holding Cell at ANBU Headquarters

Naruto was woken up to a burning sensation in his nose due to the smelling salt the ANBU used. He tried to find out what was going on but the only thing that the two ANBU would say was "Come with us." Naruto was lead from his cell through a dark hallway with concrete walls and ceilings. There were other metal doors in the hallways and Naruto guessed that these were other holding cells. He noticed his hands were bound with large thick cuffs with a chain in-between them probably placed on his wrists when he was unconscious. Apparently the masked men had child sized cuffs. Each cuff had seals engraved into them to suppress the chakra and prevent molding of chakra by the detainee, though Naruto did not know this. He tried several times to ask questions but his words were just met with silence by the ANBU on either side of him, each had a hand resting on his corresponding shoulder and were pushing him along.

He tried yelling at them but they just continued to look ahead. He even kicked the right ANBU in the shin but the guy didn't even flinch. If Naruto was panicked earlier then he was definitely beginning to freak out now. They lead him up through a guarded door and up a staircase to the next level. The ANBU halted Naruto at metal doorway which was opened and he was ushered inside. The room was sparse it only had a table and two chairs. The table and one of the chairs were bolted to the ground. The top corner of the room had a camera and one of the walls had a large mirror. The ANBU told him to sit down and then cuffed his legs to the chair. "Is that really necessary?" Naruto asked the masked men. Both of them merely stared at him for a brief period and one replied to him, "Someone will be in to talk with you shortly." Then they both left.

From his hard cold metal chair Naruto looked around the room and then just started staring ahead of him. 'Where is the Old Man?' He had yet to see the Hokage and ANBU that lead him here were not willing to tell him if the Hokage was around or if the Hokage even knew that he was here. 'I guess I just have to wait patiently,' Naruto thought. This lasted for all of five second. "OI, where the hell am I? Where's the Old Man? I'm hungry, when can I get some ramen? When I become Hokage I'm gonna remember this!" For the better part of an hour Naruto's yelling wen unanswered until the lock on the metal door clicked and someone walked in.

* * *

It had been a busy morning for Morino Ibiki. Ibiki had been personally asked by the Hokage to review the case which given the suspect in question was not a surprise for the interrogator. This was a little odd considering that the case only involved civilians if it were not for the involvement of one Uzumaki Naruto. Ibiki had already compiled the reports from the Konoha Military Police and had interviewed several people despite said persons already giving statements to the police. He now had to personally interrogate the suspect which would be followed by a psych evaluation from Yamanaka Inoichi. Normally a 'mindwalk' as it was called by the Yamanaka clan would be used but this particular suspect and his 'condition' was deemed too dangerous.

Ibiki collected his materials and files from his desk and set out to the questioning room which the suspect was currently located. Because of the age of the suspect Ibiki would have to be 'gentle' in his questioning. This was something that Ibiki rather disliked but was necessary given the age and possible mental stability of the suspect. Also the Hokage would disapprove of any aggressive tactics in questioning the suspect considering the Hokage's fondness of the boy. Ibiki had decided to let the boy sit for just over half an hour before he made his appearance.

* * *

When the door opened, a tall man walked in. His face was rather scarred and he was wearing some type of gray uniform with a black trench coat and a bandana Hitai-ate covering his head. While Naruto tried not to be intimidated by this imposing figure he failed miserably. Ibiki did not need any special observational skills to detect the fear and hesitation that came from the boy but did not show any outward sign of knowing. Ibiki noiselessly walked to the open seat from the Naruto and sat down. He placed the manilla folder in front of him and opened it. At lease a minute passed before Ibiki stopped examining the contents of the folder and looked directly at Naruto. Naruto tried not to squirm under his gaze but was not able to.

"First and foremost," Ibiki began, "My name is Morino Ibiki, second in command of the ANBU Torture and Interrogation Force, and you are currently in a detention facility. I will be questioning you and you will be answering me. You will not be interrogated, merely questioned but it is in your best interest to give truthful answers to me because I will know exactly when you are lying." Naruto gulped. "Now we can begin. Do you know why you are here?" Ibiki said while giving naruto a withering stare. "N-n-no." Naruto barely managed to force the words out while Ibiki stared at him.

"Alright, next question. Where were you last night and this morning from the time of 10:00 PM to 1:00 AM?" Ibiki continued with his questions.

"Um, I went to bed at around nine." Naruto replied in an afraid and confused voice.

"What happened after that? Did you wake up? What do you remember after that?" were the questions delivered one after another without break by Ibiki right after Naruto's reply.

"um...what are you writing on that notepad?"

"Your responses, now answer the questions." Ibiki replied evenly.

"I woke up in an alley...in the shopping district...I tried to get to the Hokage Tower...to talk to the Old Man. I didn't know what was going on." said Naruto in a small voice.

"Was there anyone else around?"

"No. Not until the police started chasing me"

"Did you have anything with you?"

"No."

"Was there blood on your hand?"

At this question Naruto's eyes looked down to his left hand and he replied in a slightly detached voice, "Yes."

After Naruto's response Ibiki sifted through the contents of his folder and pulled out three photos. Naruto recognized the first of the three pictures and Ibiki easily saw the comprehension in the boys eyes. "Do you know the person in this first picture?" Ibiki asked and Naruto nodded yes. "What about the other two, have you ever seen them before?" Naruto responded by shaking his head no. "The first person here, his name is Hideki Tojiro and he owns a weapons shop called the "Superior Shinobi Supplies." According to our information you visited this shop the day before yesterday and had an altercation with the owner resulting in you being thrown out. Would you care to explain what happened?"

Naruto looked rather annoyed at the photo and stated, "I was trying to get some practice kunai and shuriken, you know the wooden ones." Ibiki nodded his head to continue. "I entered the store, he told me to leave and then threw me out."

"Did you say anything to him, insult him in any way, threaten him maybe?" Ibiki stated.

"No." Naruto replied in a small voice.

"Then why did he throw you out?"

"They always do."

Ibiki slightly raised an eyebrow at that statement. "Did you try another store?"

"I tried all of them."

"And none of them would sell you anything, they just kicked you out?"

"Some would but I couldn't afford their prices."

"I doubt those practice weapons are very pricey."

"They always try to make me pay three to four times the listed price, sometimes more."

Ibiki frowned slightly at that answer but needed to press on. "Have you had any prior confrontations with Hideki-san?"

"No. I didn't even know his name."

"And you have never seen either of the two individuals in these photos?"

"No. Did something happen to them?"

"You could say that." Ibiki's statement did not bode well with Naruto. In addition to his nervousness and anxiety he now had a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"To the extent of your knowledge, have you every blacked out before or experienced anything similar to not knowing how you got to a certain place or having a gap in your memory?"

"No. Never. Did I do something wrong?" Naruto replied. He was looking at Ibiki expectantly as if he desperately wanted to know the answer. He also seemed on the verge of an outburst or maybe trying to hold back tears.

"We don't know yet. Were still investigating." Ibiki replied while not even looking at Naruto. The reply had been given automatically in the same even tone he had been using through the entire questioning but it did nothing to calm Naruto's nerves. "Currently that is all the questions that I have for you. An associate of mine is going to be asking you some 'easier' questions as well. His name is Yamanaka-san and he should be in to visit you shortly." Ibiki monotoned while collecting the photographs and placing them back into the manilla folder. He also collected the notepad he had been writing on and placed it in his trench coat. He left through without saying goodbye and left Naruto alone in the room.

Please Review


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Chapter II: Fallout

x-x

Outside the questioning room at the observation window

x-x

Yamanaka Inoichi was currently standing outside of the room as Uzumaki Naruto was being questioned by Ibiki. Inoichi was the commanding officer of the ANBU Torture and Interrogation Force. As such he was Ibiki's boss and soon he would probably be stepping down to spend more time at home with his daughter Ino and work at the Yamanaka Flower shop. Ibiki was going to be taking his place as commander in the near future and was being given the lead on most of the recent investigations and interrogations to get acclimatized to the position before promotion. Once Ibiki was finished with the questioning, Inoichi would get a psych evaluation on Naruto in order to determine his current state of mind and if he could be capable of committing the three murders that had taken place late the previous night. He watched the questioning through the one-way mirror in order to gain as much information as he could about the boy before he started, which was also why he was sifting through the case file.

The metal door to the questioning room opened and Ibiki stepped out. Both men stood by the observation window and looked at the blonde boy within who was currently staring at the mirror and thus staring right at them. It was Inoichi who broke the silence, "What do you think?"

"He answered all my questions truthfully and left nothing out from what I can tell. I don't think he is repressing any memories. If he is responsible then he has no knowledge of it." said Ibiki.

"What about motive?"

"If that altercation two days ago can be considered the motive then by the same logic the boy has enough motive to kill off most of the shop owners in the village. Possible you as well." Ibiki stated with a small bit of humor.

"You leave my flower shop out of this. He's never even been in my flower shop. You're right though the motive is mediocre at best. There was no real reason for him to kill Hideki-san out of all the people who have wronged him, let alone the two people he was meeting with. Did you manage to find out who they were and what they were doing at his store at such a late hour? What about scent evidence, did the tracking team find anything?"

"The two people were identified as his merchandise suppliers, both are merchants and were currently staying in Konoha. As to why they were meeting together that late at night I really could only speculate but it is a little suspicious to be meeting in a back room like that. There was nothing illegal in the back room, no contraband or anything like that, we also checked his business records for anything unusual and found nothing.

Suspicious meetings aside, there was very little sent evidence. Tsume couldn't find anything from the boys house to the crime scene and even the ANBU that was on duty to guard the boy didn't even know he had left his apartment. There is almost no scent evidence in the entire store or the back room. It seems as though the scents were covered up or masked. There is also almost no scent of the boy leaving the store to where he woke up." Ibiki replied and continued with, "I still doubt that the boy would be even capable of what the evidence suggests. He is only five years old, has no ninja training, and I don't think he has even unlocked his chakra yet. But somehow he manages to get past an ANBU, kill three fully grown civilians, and mask his scent from most of the crime scene area. Sandaime-sama has checked the seal and it seems fine but he isn't a seal master and that seal is supposed to be one of the most complex known. The ANBU outside his apartment did not feel any of the Kyuubi's chakra nor did anyone in the entire village. It just doesn't add up."

"True but this isn't just Naruto we are talking about. The boy contains the Kyuubi and if it is influencing him, which is looks like it could be, then we don't know what he is or isn't capable of. It could have possessed him somehow when he went to sleep. It unfortunate but my clan can't use any kind of 'mindwalking' on the boy if his condition is like that, its too dangerous. I don't think anyone has ever even entered the mind of a jinchuuriki before and I don't want any of my clan to even try." Inoichi replied solemnly.

"In any case it doesn't really matter whether he is innocent or not. The evidence from the Konoha Military Police is overwhelmingly against him. As soon as word gets out about this there is gonna be a shit-storm in the village. The boy is not a ninja and therefore will be tried under civilian court so in the end he will be found guilty no matter what. Excuse me Inoichi, I have to go present my findings to the Hokage."

"Good luck Ibiki-san." Inoichi replied solemnly.

x-x

Hokage's Office

x-x

*Knock Knock*

"Enter!" said the Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato.

"Hokage-sama, you wanted to see me after I had questioned Uzumaki-san and put together my findings." stated Ibiki.

The Hokage sighed and motioned for Ibiki to sit down while opening the top drawer of his desk and taking out his pipe, he had a feeling he was going to need it. Despite being noted as 'The Professor' and the 'God of Shinobi', the Sandaime was dreading this visit. He had been woken up early this morning by his ANBU with the information that three murders had occurred in the shopping district and that an eye-witness claimed to have seen Uzumaki Naruto exiting the scene. The witness was the owner of a shop right next door and claims to have been woken up by screaming next door. After witnessing the fleeing suspect the witness called the police force and they in turn notified the ANBU. The Sandaime had ordered that everyone involved, including the eye-witness, to be quiet about the incident pending an investigation. Unfortunately by early morning people were already beginning to talk and the Sandaime was beginning to fear that he may have a powder keg ready to explode. It wouldn't be long before people would start calling for the boys death.

The Sandaime had inspected the seal after Kakashi had brought the boy to him and found nothing wrong. He had already sent for Jiraiya but he had no idea when his traveling student would get the message and how soon he would arrive. Minato's seal should be perfect. The Kyuubi should not be able to influence or possess the boy, yet he was currently embroiled in a situation that would suggest otherwise.

"Please present your finding Ibiki-san." The Sandaime said while excepting the folder that Ibiki offered.

"After questioning the suspect...ah...Uzumaki-san, it was obvious that from his 'perspective' he did not commit the crimes. He has no memory of anything occurring after he went to bed around 9:00 PM until he woke up in a alley off of Oak Street. After waking up, he proceded to make his way to the Hokage Tower. He did run from Konoha Military Police until he was picked up by Hatake-san but he wasn't exactly thinking clearly at the time. Those are the only memories he has of the night in question." Ibiki stated.

"Hmmm...so he has no knowledge of anything?" After getting a nod from Ibiki the Sandaime silently thanked Kami that the boy had no knowledge of what he may have committed. Browsing through the folder the Sandaime inquired, "What about the evidence from the military police?"

"I'm afraid that the evidence is completely damaging for the boy. Uzumaki-san did have a prior, minor, altercation with one of the victim. A kunai was found in the area with the victims' blood on it as well as the boys fingerprints. Don't ask me how the Military Police have a five year-old's fingerprints on file; we are currently double checking that evidence. The blood found on Uzumaki-san's hand was a match to one of the victims. There is also the eye-witness's account. I interviewed the witness and Inoichi did a 'mindwalk' to confirm that she was telling the truth. She saw what she thought was Uzumaki Naruto fleeing the scene of the crime. Whether that was actually Naruto or an impersonator using a henge is not known. A tracking unit was used but there was almost nonexistent scent evidence."

The Sandaime exhaled a plume of smoke and pinched the bridge of his nose trying to fight off a building headache. "What are your thoughts on the case Ibiki?"

"Personally I doubt the obvious allegation that the boy was responsible or that he was somehow manipulated/possessed by the Kyuubi. There are several inconsistencies such as a lack of Kyuubi's chakra, getting past his ANBU guard without detection, sneaking past the ANBU yet getting spotted by a civilian, the lack of scent evidence at the scene and surrounding area, and a five year-old killing three grown men in a shop full of weapons without getting a scratch on him, Kyuubi empowered or not." The Sandaime nodded his head at the logic behind the Ibiki's argument. There were many discrepancies in the case. Unfortunately none of these findings would get the case thrown out.

"Inoichi is currently giving Uzumaki-san a psych evaluation but I have a feeling that it won't tell us anything more about the case. I'll keep you informed." Ibiki said before he got up from his chair and prepared to leave.

"Ibiki-san, what do you think his chances are in a trial?" The Sandaime already had an idea of Naruto's chances but he wanted a second opinion.

"Honestly Hokage-sama, even in an appeals case I don't think its possible for him to get a non-guilty verdict. Even with the best lawyer in Fire Country."

"That's...what I thought as well." the Sandaime replied with a heavy sigh. Before Ibiki left the Sandaime had one last thought, "Has Naruto been notified on what charges he is being held for?"

"No he has not. I thought it best to wait until the investigation was concluded before even thinking about telling him. I am not sure that informing him or having him sit through a trial with the evidence being displayed will be very healthy for a five-year old. Especially if it is possible that his mental stability is in question. Also he does not know that he holds the Kyuubi. What do you want to do Hokage-sama?"

"Perhaps he should not be present at the trial. I'll have to consult Inoichi after the psych evaluation on what the best course of action for informing Naruto of the Kyuubi and charges against him. Thank you Ibiki."

Ibiki nodded and left.

The Hokage turned towards the pictures on the wall of the other kages'. Specifically to the Yondaime and curse loudly at the entire situation. There was no good outcome to this problem and anyway that he looked at the situation, he had failed the boy. 'Why was it that the boy never seemed to get a break? No one in Konoha's history has ever been tried for three murders at only five years of age, even at ten or fifteen years of age. I can't even image what the verdict would be and the fallout of the village for charging a young child with murder. Hopefully Jiraiya will get here to examine the seal before the civilian council forces a trial date to be scheduled. I don't known how long I can hold off the inevitable storm.'

x-x

It hadn't taken long for the majority of the village to hear of what happened. The Sandaime had tried to put a lid on the situation but in a mere manner of hours the entire village was in outrage over the incident. Most people were both scarred and angry. They wanted vengeance on the Kyuubi container for lashing out at civilians for what the saw as no real reason. Many people talked as if they knew this day would come all along, and it was just a matter of time before the demon returned. They wanted blood. It had only been twelve hours since the murders occurred and civilians had already taken it upon themselves to punish the demon.

Naruto's apartment that he had been living in for nearly a year after being kicked out of the orphanage was the first casualty. A mob had set fire to it and they didn't even bother to disperse themselves after committing the act to escape from being arrested. A rumor had spread from an unknown source that 'the demon' was being held in the Konoha Military Police Station in a holding cell. Soon after the military police were fighting off a riot that had started outside the station with civilians and ninja like trying to break into the station in order to 'serve justice' and 'finish what the Yondaime started'. It took several hours for the Uchiha clan to get the police station back under control and they had to call in off-duty ninja and some of the ANBU forces to do it. With little else to take out their frustrations on because they could not find Naruto, tensions were extremely high.

The Hokage was having just as bad of a time trying to deal with the rest of the village. Nearly every influential civilian in the village including every member on the civilian council were demanding an audience with him in order to discus the situation and what he was doing about it. Then there was the shinobi council. The village elders had demanded an emergency meeting which the Hokage thought he might not even be able to attend with chaos currently happening right outside his window. It wasn't until the Uchiha clan had the riot at police station under control that things even begun to settle down. Even then the holding cells at the station were jammed full by that time and Uchiha Fugaku, the head of the Uchiha clan and chief of police, was requesting additional space to hold offenders.

The Hokage was forced to deploy almost all of the available shinobi in the village to control its citizens as well as shinobi who joined the mobs. He had to divert most shinobi from patrols and guard duty to stop any signs of rioting in the streets. Hiruzen had never been so thankful that the location ANBU headquarters was only known to the ANBU, the Hokage and his advisers, the clan heads, as well as the top ranking jonin in the village. In addition to that, any offenders that did find out about it would have to storm up the Hokage monument to get to it and even then you would need more than just a mob to break into the base. Needless to say, the safest place for Naruto was inside of his holding cell at the moment.

It wasn't until after the Hokage secured the village from...the villagers, that he was able to call and attend the emergency meeting. He also told his secretary to take the rest of the day off and the guards at the tower to use excessive force if necessary to keep anyone from trying to barge in to see him. Needless to say, when the Hokage finally sat down in his chair in the meeting room he felt like shit. The only other person who could possibly feel worse than him was Uchiha Fugaku, and by the look of Fugaku, it may be a possibility.

"Now, what do 'you' all want!" Hiruzen said to the council is as civil a tone as he could at the moment. The person to give him the answer he sought was one of his former team mates and one of his current advisor, Utatane Koharu, "In light of recent events I think that we would all like to know exactly what happened from a reliable source and not through the rumor and speculation circulating through the village." Several other members nodded their heads in agreement to this statement and the Hokage told them all that he knew about the incident and what was happening. After he was finished and Nara Shikaku had added his thoughts on the subject, "How troublesome." Inoichi then presented the findings of his evaluation of Naruto. He informed the council that the both was in good mental health, considering what he had to endure on a day to day basis from the village he was in excellent mental health. There was no indication of any influence by his tenant.

The Sandaime then spoke again, "I have examined the seal and from what I can tell there is no malfunction and the seal is working perfectly." Before anyone could say anything to the contrary he continued, "Yes I have already sent for Jiraiya to return and inspect the seal himself."

While the Sandaime seemed to have some faith that Jiraiya would be found and answer the summons to return, his thoughts were rather different. 'I have no idea when and if Jiraiya will get here. If he isn't in fire country it could take months to find him and I can't send ninja outside of our borders for an extended period like that. I sent several messengers to search as much of Fire Country as possible before the trial. If he isn't found and it is obvious that he cannot make it before the trial I will have to call off the mission.' The Hokage thought sadly.

While Jiraiya was an excellent shinobi he was incredibly difficult to find because he kept moving around to meet his contacts for his spy network. His contacts were also all over the surrounding countries. It was seldom that Jiraiya would even contact the Sandaime with any information and it had been five years since his former student had even been in the village. Hiruzen had no way of contacting Jiraiya through his toad summons and therefore had to have a messenger find him. Therefore it was very unlikely that Jiraiya would be able to arrive before the trial.

The Sandaime's thoughts were broken by a question from Aburame Shibi, "Hokage-sama, what exactly will happen to Uzumaki-san?

"Naruto is currently in a holding cell in ANBU headquarters where he will stay until such time as a trial is held. Naruto does not yet know of the charges against him. I cannot shirk the laws of Konoha and Fire Country so a trial must be held to determine his guilt or innocence, but I would like to postpone it as long as possible."

"How exactly are we going to conduct a fair trial?" asked the Sandaime's other advisor and former team mate Mitokado Homura.

The Hokage contemplated on this and responded, "Considering that a jury from Konoha is out of the question and the sensative nature of the trial, I believe that we will have to call an arbitrator from the capital to come to Konoha and oversee the trial. We will need to have the trial in an undisclosed location to keep civilians and shinobi alike from disturbing it. Given Naruto's young age I don't think it wise to have him present at the trial to listen to the evidence presented against him. It would be better if someone was chosen to represent him at the trial."

The other members of the shinobi council nodded in understanding at the Sandaime's words. "How long do you think you can postpone the trial?" asked Yamanaka Inoichi. "Seeing as the investigation is almost complete, in accordance with the law I will have to send for an arbitrator in the morning. However long it takes for he or she to arrive will determine when the trial will be held." responded the Sandaime. The other shinobi again nodded in understanding and agreement at these words. It was written in the laws of Konoha that after the investigation was over, a trial would be held as soon as a jury was assembled or in this case, an arbitrator was found.

As the meeting ended and the participants filed out the Sandaime couldn't help but feel that this had been one of the longest and worst days of his life. If he didn't follow the laws or conduct a trial, then the citizens of Konoha would most likely complain to the Fire Daimyo. The Fire Daimyo would be required to investigate these complaints and the Sandaime could end up be removed from his position and someone else chosen to be Hokage. There really weren't many choices but the Sandaime needed to keep his position in order to help Naruto as much as possible. He didn't want to put the boy on trial, what he really wanted was to just make all of his current problems disappear but this was not meant to be. A trial had to occur and Naruto had to be judged.

No matter how much the Sandaime wished it wasn't so, it would have to happen. With the charges against the boy he would be found guilty no matter what, meaning that the trial was just a sham and everyone in the council room knew that. The only thing that the Sandaime was concerned with now was damage control. The Sandaime needed to make sure that the sentence was as light as possible and something that he could work with. It was obvious that the civilians wanted execution even though the boy was a minor and the mere thought was ridiculous. That was mainly why he wanted a neutral arbitrator to decide and not a jury and judge from Konoha because they would push for the maximum possible sentence. The Sandaime just hoped that the boy would be shown mercy.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Inuyasha

Chapter III: Justice or Unjust

x-x

Holding cell in ANBU Headquarters

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Uzumaki Naruto was sitting on his cot in the holding cell that he had been in for nearly two weeks. The cell was about four foot by eight foot and had a sink, a toilet, a cot, and a single light on the ceiling. The walls were the same concrete that the rest of the facility was made with. He was currently staring at the opposite wall from his cot...again. The walls were partially covered in graffiti and etchings that previous prisoners had drawn or carved into the wall. Numerous individuals had tallied out the days of their stay in this cell...apparently the longest was twenty-three days. In another area, a deranged individual had copied the same phrase over and over again, "THE CAKE IS A LIE." Of course Naruto had no idea what this meant (AN: If you haven't played PORTAL you might not know what it means either). No one had offered him cake and if they had he would pass. The food in this place was terrible. The message also appeared to be made in dried blood, which really freaked Naruto out.

The Old Man had visited him last week. The look on his wrinkled face did not help Naruto's mood or calm his fears. They had a long talk. Well...the Old Man talked and Naruto listened. During that talk Naruto had learned about the Kyuubi and about the charges against him. Naruto didn't believe him at first but then he was shown the seal on his stomach and everything, his treatment by the village, seemed to fit into place. While Naruto did not ask, he had wanted to know why he wasn't told earlier, and why the Old Man who he trusted was keeping secrets from him. He felt very betrayed. After he learned of the charges against him and that he had killed three people while under the influence of the Kyuubi, Naruto had nearly thrown up. The Hokage had spared him the details of the case. The Old Man had selected Morino Ibiki to represent Naruto and a lawyer had been provided from outside of the village to take Naruto's case. He refrained from telling Naruto about his chances at the trial of being declared innocent to at least give the boy some glimmer of hope. Before he left, the Old Man said he would do everything in his power to keep Naruto safe and that staying in this cell was the safest place to be right now.

The trial had taken place and finished days ago. Despite the efforts of all those helping Naruto, he was declared guilty by the Arbitrator from the Fire Country capital that had presided over the case in place of a jury. The only thing that hadn't been decided was sentencing. The Arbitrator met with both civilian and shinobi councils to discuss any possible problems or over sites with sentencing given Naruto's unique situation. Naruto had not been told what went on at that meeting but the Arbitrator had made his decision and it was only a matter of time before Naruto was moved to a prison facility outside of Konoha.

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Flashback to the meeting

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The Arbitrator was sitting calmly in front of the seating areas for both councils in a large meeting room. His name was Kintetsu Sanosuke. He was a rather plump man in dress kimono and had what he believed was a rather dignified mustache, while other might think it a little silly. His vision circled around the room as w waited for both councils to get seated before beginning this meeting. Sanosuke had come to Konoha to preside over a very important and private trial in the essence of fairness, neutrality, and justice. It wasn't until he had arrived in Konoha that he was told he would be deciding the fate of a five-year old child in a murder case with extremely extenuating circumstances. Despite a good defense presented by the representatives of the accused, he unfortunately had to judge the case based on the evidence provided which was not in the boys favor.

Sanosuke finished his thoughts as the last of the councelors entered the room and seated themselves. The shinobi and civilian councils met here to discuss issues in the village that affected both the military and civilian populaces. Most meeting that were purely shinobi related were left to solely to the shinobi council and vice versa for the civilian council, but matters did arise that affected both councils and this was one of those times. "Seeing as everybody is now here, this meeting can official begin." intoned the Hokage in Sanosuke's direction.

"Thank you Hokage-sama. As you all know, we are gathered today to discuss the sentencing of one Uzumaki Naruto. While the final decision on sentencing is up to me, I will be listening to the advisement of both councils. I am not a ninja and this does involve ninja matters and I do not live in Konoha and I am trying to come to the most sensible and fair decision. Now we will begin by discussing the most sensible form of punishment for the extenuating circumstances of the case.." Sansosuke's speech was interrupted by one the civil councils members shouting, "Execution!" This was followed by a volley of other similar shouts. Sanosuke merely looked annoyed at being interrupted and waited for the Hokage to settle things down.

"Enough! You will act like counselors and not children in this meeting or you will be forcibly removed!" Shouted the Hokage while releasing a subtle amount of killing intent which did the trick.

"Thank you Hokage-sama. As I was saying...because of the extenuating circumstances and the age of the boy in question...execution will not be considered." Sanosuke said with a a hint of a smile on his lips while twirling his long mustache with his finger and giving a glance toward the civilian council. The civilian council in turn were about to start shouting in outrage and protest but were again silenced by the Hokage.

"A Prison sentence is the only logical course of action for this case, unless there are other suggestions?" Sanosuke said while looking around the room.

Before the Hokage could say anthing, Shimura Danzo got to his feet and said, "I believe that I have a suggestion that has yet to be considered." The arbitrator nodded for Danzo to continue while the Hokage and several shinobi clan heads narrowed their eyes.

"Given the boys 'condition' I think that the boy should be made into an effective shinobi for the village in place of a prison sentence. The boy could be extensively trained to control his 'tenant' and prevent its influence while serving the village and Fire Country." Said Danzo in an even tone.

"You mean to make him into a shinobi then under your guidance?" questioned Sanosuke. Before Danzo could reply, he was interrupted by a frowning Hokage, "No, he means to remove the boys emotions and make him into a weapon under his control."

Danzo made no effort to dispute the claims of the Hokage and Sanosuke contemplated the suggestion. 'This was one of the reasons why I wanted this meeting. I would not have come up with an alternative such as this. The boy would not be subject to jail time but being turned into an emotionless weapon is not something I completely agree with. Aren't shinobi already weapons though? Aren't they supposed to control all emotion as well? From what I understand, future ninja begin training at around the boys age anyway. I suppose I should put it to a vote.'

"This suggestion has some merit..." the Hokage's frown deepened. "..but I want to know what others feel about this choice and would like you to vote on it. All in favor.." Sanosuke said but stopped the voting when he noticed the hands of the civilian council members had instantly shot into the air. "I am sorry but I believe that this vote should only be decided by the shinobi council." Danzo's eyes widened slightly at this statement.

"And why is that?" "We deserve the right to vote as well." "Outrageous!" "You can't do this!" came the shouts of most of the civilian council members. Once the shouting had been stopped again by the Hokage, Sanosuke explained his reasoning. "With this suggestion, I believe that the boy would cease being a civilian and would not be under the rulings of the civilian council. Therefore I believe that the voting on this decision is solely a shinobi matter and falls under the rulings of the shinobi council."

The Sandaime sighed in relief. Naruto had almost become one of Danzo's puppets which was something he would not have as long as he was Hokage. Danzo on the other hand, despite all of his training, was fuming behind his emotionless 'mask' that he always wore on his face. 'Damn! All of my careful planning and preparations just went to waste. I blackmailed or bribed nearly the entire civilian council for this moment and it was destroyed by this idiot in front of me. I didn't plan on him eliminating the civilian council from the vote. There is no way more than half of the shinobi council will vote in favor of my suggestion.' Danzo's thoughts were correct as the voting had not gone in his favor. Six out the the twelve members of the shinobi council voted against his suggestion, which he knew they would. He had managed to get the support of the Hyuuga, Uchiha, Inuzuka clans as well as the other two elders Homura and Koharu. The Hokage, Kurama, Yamanaka, Akimichi, Aburame, and Nara clans voted against. No one was present to claim the Senju clan seat in the council and therefore their could be no vote for that clan but the Hokage was able to vote twice because he was from the Sarutobi clan which also had a seat on the council. Sarutobi knew the voting would go this way because five years ago it had gone the same, and no ones views on making Naruto into a weapon had changed since then.

"Are there any more suggestions?" asked Sanosuke after the vote had failed. This time the Hokage was the one to rise. Sanosuke nodded to acknowledge the Hokage. "I would like to suggest that the boy be put under house-arrest inside the village." No sooner had the statement been made then the civilian council started shouting disagreements. As soon as they had been settled down by the Hokage once again. Sanosuke spoke. "I'm sorry Hokage-sama but I don't think that suggestion would work. There isn't a secure enough location within village after the...'events' that were caused by the villagers and the destruction of the boys residence. Putting the boy under house-arrest inside the village would just make him a target. I also don't think that it would be wise to put him in a safe-house outside the village either. The evidence in the trial suggested that the boy was able to get past his ANBU guard undetected and he may do so again so I cannot risk that." Before the Hokage could put forth an alternative, Sanosuke continued as he knew what the Hokage would say next. "I also cannot place him in a cell inside of the village. Konoha does not have any long-term accommodations for prisoners. You have the police station holding cells but that would definitely be unwise considering what occurred just over a week ago at the police station." Uchiha Fugaku acknowledged the arbitrator's words with a grunt of understanding. There was no way the container would be placed inside of his police station and have a repeat of the riot that took place last week. The building was still under repair.

"Also..." Sanosuke continued. "...the detention facility that is manned by your ANBU forces is only made to temporary prisoners and is not suited for long-term prisoners."

"Then what will be done with the 'boy'?"stated a rather irritated civilian council member.

Sanosuke took a deep breath and began, "Since there are no other suggestions..." Sanosuke paused for a moment to make sure no one had anything relevant to say. "...the only course of action is to decide where the boy will be incarcerated and for how long." Sansosuke said with an air of finality and sadness.

The silence was broken by Aburame Shibi, "Will the boy be staying in a civilian or shinobi facility?" While Fire Country had many civilian prisons there was only one shinobi prison. Trying to salvage the situation, Danzo was about to suggest a civilian prison which would be easy to infiltrated and 'extract' the container but he was cut off by the Hokage. "I believe that given the boys condition that a civilian facility would not be as adequate as a shinobi prison." Although the Sandaime did not want to even suggest that Naruto might be capable of escaping or breaking out, If Naruto was to be sent to a prison he wanted it to be a prison where he controlled the guards.

Sanosuke thought about the Hokage's words and they seemed logical besides it would be difficult and costly to make the necessary precautions, such as seals and chakra limiting devices, at a civilian prison when these already existed at the shinobi prison. Kami forbid something happened and the guards were needed to subdue the boy, the civilians guards wouldn't stand a chance. "I agree, a civilian prison would have to refurbished to accommodate the necessary chakra limiting measures whereas a shinobi prison already has these. Since there is only one shinobi prison in all of Fire Country, Uzumaki Naruto shall be moved to the Konoha Strict Correctional Facility for the duration of his incarceration. Now on to the length of the sentence."

No sooner had Sanosuke finished his statement then someone in the civilian council said, "He should be imprisoned Indefinitely!" Several shouts of agreement followed this statement. Sanosuke frowned at this outburst as did several others in the shinobi council. He really did not think that the crimes the both had unknowingly committed required a life sentencing. "While the boy is guilty of the crimes against him, as I stated during the trial it hardly warrants a life sentence. The boy was not found guilty for murder in the first or second degree but rather I sentenced him to three counts of manslaughter. The maximum sentencing for a adult would be between twenty and sixty years..." several people on the shinobi council paled slightly at the estimate. "...but seeing as the boy is a minor and this is his first offense, I really couldn't sentence him to any longer than twelve years. Steps shall be taken to seal off the boys chakra as completely as possible and then he shall be transported to the facility to serve his sentence."

Before everyone left the meeting the, Sandaime made it very clear that should anyone speak of the results of this meeting that they would be charged with treason. This was of course met with much protest from members of both councils but the Sandaime remained firm in his decree. Also no one was to speak about what happened to Naruto or the case and incident in general. Most people would be outraged that Naruto was not executed or imprisoned indefinitely so he would not tell them.

He had failed to cover up the murders in order to protect Naruto and not let information leak out. The last thing that the Sandaime wanted was for people to know what happened to the boy and what his sentencing was. Though reluctantly, the counselors agreed to his demands as they did not want much of the information to get out and the Hokage would later make a public announcement like he did after the Kyuubi attack.

It would be harmful to Konoha's image for possible employers and other villages to know about this incident, the decision made, or to know about Naruto in general. The Sandaime's also wanted to keep Naruto as safe as possible since he was no longer in the village. It wouldn't be that hard for some rich civilian to hire missing-nin or ninja from another village to get at Naruto in the prison and with tensions the way they were right now he simply could not have any faith in most of the people in the village. Both councils did agree to that and everyone but the Hokage filed out of the meeting room. The Hokage barely noticed as he was still deep in though about the results of the meeting.

The prison facility had at a number of ninja guards but he would soon be upgrading security and the guards at the facility more for purpose of keeping others out then keeping inmates in. He would also have to screen all of the guards before assigning them to guard the facility. Before Naruto was moved to the facility he would be making several arrangements and changes at the prison at the monetary expense of the village. If the civilian council disagreed then he would tell them it was to better hold Naruto. They would easily accept that lie and probably put forth a small fortune of the villages budget to keep Naruto as far away from them and locked up as tight as possible. That would make the ignorant villagers happy and keep Naruto as safe as he could be and possibly help him integrate back into society when he was released.

Of course the boys career as a shinobi was all but finished after the sentencing. It was a known fact that children unlocked and began working with chakra at a very young age to start accessing, molding, and channeling chakra through there pathways. Around the age of fifteen, if a person had not unlocked their chakra by then, it would be extremely difficult to train them to harness their chakra. Any later then that and it would be nearly impossible. If they had unlocked it before that age, but never used it then they would suffer the same problem. It wasn't a case of chakra reserves but more of the pathways not being used before a person finished puberty that a person won't be able to correctly mold and channel chakra. After puberty is over, chakra pathways are 'locked' in a way for those that have not unlocked or extensively used their chakra and it is all but impossible to correctly use chakra after that. No amount of training will change that. When a child unlocks their chakra at an early age this begins the process of enlarging the pathways and strengthening it for proper molding and channeling. The pathways will continue to enlarge with use throughout a persons early adulthood and then the channels and chakra reserves will slowly diminish in later life. If a person did not unlock or make use of their chakra at all before the cutoff then their usefulness as a ninja was nonexistent and they would not be able to properly mold and channel chakra. In accordance with the ruling, Naruto's chakra would be sealed and he would not be able to access it at all until after his sentence was over, which would be too late for him to become a ninja. No matter how much chakra reserves he had, his pathways would not be able to mold or channel any large amounts of chakra.

Flashback End

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	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Inuyasha

Chapter IV: On the road

x-x

Sealing Chamber, ANBU Headquarters

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Naruto was currently unconscious inside of a large sealing area in a special area of ANBU headquarters. The Sandaime was just finishing putting all of the seals on Naruto's body before he would be escorted to prison. A four elements seal (similar to the five elements seal used on Naruto, but one less element to match the Yondaime's seal) was placed over the seal holding the Kyuubi to make sure that Naruto cannot knowingly access the fox's chakra and the fox cannot send chakra into Naruto's body. The reason that this seal had not been placed on Naruto earlier was because the Sandaime wanted to see if Naruto would have another episode of being possessed or influenced by the fox, which did not occur in the nearly three weeks he stayed in the ANBU holding cell. He was constantly monitored the whole time.

The Sandaime also placing several chakra suppressing seals to stop Naruto from using or molding his chakra. These seals were placed on both of his shoulders on his back. Two seals were placed as a contingency. All seals fail eventually. The weaker the seal, the faster it will fail. Even with Naruto's higher than average reserves, these two seals would hold until after the time that he would be released. He wished that Jiraiya had been able to make it back to Konoha but his messenger had been unable to find him in time. He had spread word through several of Jiraiya's contacts that he knew of in Fire Country and hopefully the toad sannin would eventually get the message. The Sandaime sighed heavily as he looked down at the unconscious blonde haired boy laying on the floor. He really wished he could do more for the boy, but even the Hokage had limits which most shinobi in Konoha didn't understand. They seemed to believe that he could do anything, and he wished that was true.

It was obvious to the Sandaime that the boy had been crying on and off after he heard about the trial and the sentencing. Naruto had been looking forward to joining the academy the following year with other students his age. With the recent events this was not meant to be and the Hokage was not going to tell the boy about his extremely limited chances of ever being a shinobi due to his chakra being sealed up. After going through this whole mess it might cause the boy to suffer some kind of break down. Naruto was already near the breaking point when the Sandaime sadly informed him that their was no ramen in prison. That had really hit the him hard.

The Hokage had spent the entire week since the sentencing going over information on the prison facility and getting help from Ibiki. They had already replaced nearly every guard with ones that they knew could be trusted to treat the boy fairly and created a room just for Naruto. It wasn't like the regular prison cells there and he was also tucked away from the main population of the prison. Scheduling changes also had to be made to make sure that Naruto wasn't around many of the more infamous inmates at any point in time. Especially the ones incarcerated for the more heinous of crimes. Ibiki had an interesting idea of bribing several of the prisoners in order to watch out for the boy, which the Sandaime was in agreement to. Unfortunately only two inmates fit this criteria but no one in the prison messed with those two.

The Legendary Stupid Brothers were in prison for killing several fellow members of a group of criminal ninja over a food dispute. Afterward the had settled down immediately upon getting the food. After being apprehended in Fire Country, they were placed in the ninja correctional facility. Both brothers were exceedingly strong and their bodies had extremely hard skin. Both had monstrous chakra reserves and were among the stupidest people the Sandaime had ever met. No one in the prison messed with them, or their food. They really only ate, slept, and worked. If you fed them regularly, they weren't a problem. The guards didn't even bother locking their cell door. They wouldn't run away from the free food that they were provided. With a little bribe of extra rations if they watched out for Naruto during his stay at the prison, both agreed. Their cells were also moved so that they were near Naruto's cell.

The Sandaime sighed once again, he wished he could do more for the boy. Kakashi had already volunteered to secretly smuggle Naruto outside of the village and not into the prison despite the fact that he would be committing treason but the Sandaime told him it would not be a good idea. The new laws that he had placed in the village went over as he had expected, everyone hated them and would only follow them in public. Eventually though he knew that people would start to forget about Naruto and what he had been found guilty of, which was what he hoped for. In ten years they might not see the boy as they do now and maybe life in the village would not be so terrible for Naruto by that point, but that was wishful thinking at best. Both councils had demanded that they be given regular updates on the boy, at the very least once a month. The Sandaime guessed that the shinobi council members just wanted verification that the boy was were he was supposed to be and the civilian council members wanted to feel assured that the boy was locked away.

In any case, the Hokage had done all that he could. If Jiraiya was here that may have been different. Had his wayward student arrived before the trial he could have possibly convinced the arbitrator to have Jiraiya watch the boy and take him on his trips instead of jail time. That way someone who was knowledgeable in seals was always near the boy and Naruto would be away from Konoha. The Sandaime had nearly suggested it at the meeting after the trial but because Jiraiya was not there and there was no guarantee when or if he would arrive, he did not put forth that suggestion.

For years the Sandaime had believed that Orichimaru and his fall into madness was his greatest failure but recent events had changed his mind. The boy in front of him that was being carried back to his cell by two ANBU was now his greatest failure. With the seal and the fox's chakra getting added to the boys own chakra, it was possible that he would still be able to become a ninja after being release but even 'The Professor' wasn't sure about that. He only hoped and prayed that things would get better for the boy at some point.

x-x

On the road to the Konoha Strict Correctional Facility

x-x

This was the first time in his five years that Naruto had been outside the walls of the village. He had expected something interesting but so far it was just a dirt road and a bunch of trees. Once he had woken up from the sealing, Naruto had been introduced to three shinobi who would be taking him to his final destination. He wished the Old Man had chosen three other ninja.

"YOSH! Kakashi my Eternal Rival, the score is currently 30 to 29 with my youthful self being in the lead! That means it is your turn to pick the challenge!" the shinobi on the right side of Naruto said to the shinobi on the left side. The man was very hard to describe. He wore green skin-tight clothing and had an odd bowl-shaped haircut. When they were first introduced Naruto had an extremely hard time concentrated on what the man was saying because he could not stop staring at the mans eyebrows, if they were indeed eyebrows. They could have been caterpillars and he swore he thought they were moving. The only words that he managed to catch of the man's introduction was that his name was 'Gai', he was 'Youthful', and for some reason he wanted Naruto to 'admire his manly features'.

"Hm...sorry did you say something Gai?" said the second shinobi lazily. This guy was nearly as strange as the first in Naruto's opinion. Despite seeming to be rather young, the man had gray hair that stood nearly straight up. He wore a mask that covered nearly his entire face and wore his hit'ate so that it covered his left eye. He never seemed to put down the orange colored book that he was reading and once in a while he would...giggle. When they first met he also gave him a really creepy eye-smile.

"Darn you Kakashi and your hip and cool attitude!" stated guy in a scolding voice. Gai had been trying to challenge Kakashi since they started their journey but with no success. He looked over to the boy they were escorting and barely held back a sigh. So young and he was going to jail for unyouthful crimes that he did not knowingly commit. His fires of youth were terribly low. 'They just need to be fanned to return to a youthful burn, but how?' thought Gai.

Kakashi once again wondered why the Hokage, in is infinite wisdom, had decided to team him up with Maito Gai again. Kakashi was still in ANBU and it would have made more sense to just let his ANBU team escort the boy but perhaps the boy had enough exposure to the silent and faceless masked force. 'But seriously, Gai? That man should never be allowed near young impressionable children.' he thought.

The third member of the group was currently walking slightly ahead of them and constantly scanning the terrain for any sign of danger with his Sharingan. The eleven year-old had already been a chunin for over a year and was the most gifted shinobi of his generation. Of course he had the emotional capabilities of a rock from years of training by his clan to become the perfect shinobi. Itachi was chosen for a specific task during this mission which wouldn't start until they were in the prison. Until then, he was keeping watch for any possible threats and complete the assigned mission without any problems. He was personally chosen by the Hokage for this escort mission and he would not let down the village or his kage.

For all of Itachi's genius though, he still had trouble understanding the blonde child behind him. He understood the boy was the Kyuubi container but from Itachi's perspective the boy was clearly no threat to anyone. Itachi also had trouble believing that the boy could have committed those crimes. Yet the rest of the village thought completely different. To them he was a monster that should have been destroyed years ago and now their thoughts had been proven right. Their irrational fears and anger towards the boy did not make any sense. The damage and casualties due to the Kyuubi attack had been moderate at best.

Itachi had been called in during the rioting to 'defend' the Konoha Military Police Station along with nearly every active ninja member of his clan. Until then Itachi believe that war was the thing that brought out the worst in people. But on that day, a good portion of the village had been driven into some kind of hysteria. When he first responded to the Hokage's orders he had assumed that it was some terror attack by another village through mass genjutsu or some kind of drug but he had been very surprised to learn that it started with the deaths of three civilians seemingly by a five-year old boy. They weren't even influential civilians like council members or the upperclass. Two failing merchants and a weapons store owner. Yet the village had experienced a small uprising. He had felt the Kyuubi's power on the day that it attacked an while it was frightening and the most malicious he had ever felt, it didn't make sense that it could cause such panic in people, especially since it was sealed.

x-x

Ten minutes later later, same road

x-x

Maito Gai had been silent now for nearly ten minutes. It was really starting to scare Kakashi. The Green Beast seemed to be thinking hard about something. This only made Kakashi worry more. At some point the man would either have his answer or get fed up with thinking. In either case he would explode into action and shouts or do something very odd. Kakashi put away his orange book and contemplated moving his head band up to use his Sharingan should he need it

"YOSH NARUTO-KUN! I FINALLY HAVE AN IDEA! YOU..." he pointed at Naruto in a very odd stance. "..ARE LACKING PASSION! BUT I HAVE COME UP WITH A WAY TO FAN YOUR FIRES OF YOUTH!" Shouted a very exuberant Gai. Everyone stopped walking. Naruto just blinked and looked around for instruction from the other shinobi as to what he should be doing. Kakashi looked worried. Itachi had pulled out a kunai and was intent on defending the young boy from these 'fires of youth' as he believed them to be in some way harmful to the boy. Itachi had not been exposed much to the insanity of Maito Gai.

"YOSH! THIS..." Gai quickly reached around his back to his ninja pouch. Itachi tensed and brought out some shuriken ready to spring into action while Kakashi mentally prepared himself for the worst. Gai continued with his motion and whipped out a green one-piece suit. "...GORGEOUS SUIT!" finished Gai. Itachi accidentally dropped his shuriken, Kakashi sweat-dropped, and Naruto just stared.

"This is one of my specially made suits. It's durable, it breaths, and fits perfectly no matter what!" Proudly shouted Gai. Kakashi coughed slightly as he was having trouble keeping the bile down. Naruto stared for a few seconds and then said, "Awesome! What else does it do, what else does it do...ttebayo!." Naruto's response made Itachi accidentally cut himself why he was picking up his dropped shuriken.

"I'm glad you asked! This highly sought after item is specially lined to prevent minor cuts and abrasions while taking some impact from hits! It also does not restrict movement in the slightest and is waterproof. It is guaranteed to increase your training abilities. As you can see.." he pointed at himself with his thumb. "..I wear one as well and it has made me the Green Beat that I am today!." Gai said while finishing with his 'good guy pose' complete with thumbs up and 'tinging' smile.

'This is by far the worst infomercial I have ever seen. It's going to haunt me in my nightmares for years to come.' thought Kakashi while wearing a slightly horrified expression on what was shown of his face. Itachi was actually thinking the same thing since he had his Sharingan activated and he accidentally memorized the whole thing. Naruto on the other hand was thinking very differently. 'I have got to get one of those suits. But with all the features they have, its gotta be pretty expensive and I don't have any money. And you have to pay extra for the shear awesomeness. Things that have awesomeness like that are always so expensive.' thought Naruto.

"Here, this is yours!" Gai said while handing Naruto the suit. "For free, really?" Naruto said and Gai just nodded with a blindingly bright smile with his whiter that white teeth. "Of course! Once the other prisoners see you in this, you'll be the envy of everyone there!" Gai assured Naruto.

Of course Kakashi and Itachi had different ideas about Naruto wearing that suit in front of prisoners, and they were very different from Gai's thoughts. "uhhh...Gai, can I have a word with you...over there...privately!" Kakashi said to Gai while pointing to an area several paces away. Naruto didn't even notice as he was thoroughly inspecting his new suit. "Of course my Eternal Rival! We will be right back Itachi-kun." Gai said.

"Umm...Gai, it might not be a very good idea to give that skin-tight body suit to Naruto so that he can wear it while he stays in prison, if you get my drift." Kakashi said, hoping that Gai would comprehend.

"Hmmmmn...ohhh I see, I should give Naruto more than one so he can give one to the friends that he makes." replied Gai. Kakashi face-palmed thinking 'He keeps more than one of those on him during missions?"

"No, Gai. That's not what I mean at all. The boy is going to prison you can't give him something like that to wear in there!" Kakashi said in as hushed a voice as he possibly could considering his current frustration.

"Hmmmmn...ahhh, I understand perfectly.." Kakashi sighed, 'finally' he though. "...that color wouldn't be suitable at all for a prisoner." With that said Gai reached back and started digging through his ninja pouch. Kakashi nearly face-faulted and though, 'he keeps multiply colors with him too!'. "I think I might have an orange one in here somewhere." Naruto, who was not standing too far away, heard this and shouted in a very exited voice, "YOU HAVE ORANGE?"

Before Gai could respond, Kakashi grabbed his jonin vest and looked him directly in the eye. "Gai, I want you to focus on what I'm saying." Gai, who was rather worried at how his rival was acting right now nodded slowly. "Naruto is going to prison, a ninja prison, with terrible people inside." Gai nodded and continued to follow Kakashi's train of thought. "These are very bad people, murderers, felons, and perhaps rapists and pedophiles. And you want to give him a skin-tight suit to wear in front of these people?" Kakashi finished.

Gai suddenly caught on to what his genius rival had been trying to tell him all along and developed a horrified look on his face. He glanced over at Naruto and then back at Kakashi. "This is bad." Gai said. Kakashi could only nod his head with a sigh. "I can't just take back the suit, look how much it means to him." They both looked over and saw Naruto hugging the suit while Itachi watched on with mild disgust. "Unfortunately yes." acknowledged Kakashi. Gai got in his thinking pose once again and thought of something quite quickly. "We could just tell him to wear it underneath the other clothes that they give him when he gets there." Gai said. Kakashi for once looked at Gai and wondered exactly why he himself hadn't thought of that solution. "OK Gai, you'll have to make this clear to him before we reach the prison tomorrow." said Kakashi. "You can count on me, my Eternal Rival!" Gai replied while giving Kakashi that creepy shining smile of his.

'Whew, dodged a fire jutsu on that one.' Kakashi thought and sweat-dropped as Gai went back over to Naruto and started to explain the suit to him, how he should wear it, and started outlining an exercise regiment and schedule for him. He also explained that he did not have a bright orange suit with him but he could mail him one later, much to Kakashi and Itachi's ire.

x-x

Deep in Root Headquarters, underneath Konoha

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Danzo was currently siting at his desk inside of his office in Root and filing out paperwork. Yes, unfortunately even he had to fill out paperwork and then have his Root ANBU burn it at a later date. On the outside Danzo seemed calm but on the inside he was still seething. His plans for acquiring the Kyuubi container had completely failed.

The three men that were murdered were done so on his orders by his Root forces. They kidnapped the container right under his ANBU guards nose and placed him near the scene. Evidence was also planted. One of his Root ANBU even stayed on the scene and made sure he was seen by a civilian while under a henge of Naruto. Danzo had come to this plan after a need to eliminate the three civilians. Most of his Root ANBU were either thought as being MIA by normal Konoha forces or were not even listed as being citizens or ninja of Fire Country. They couldn't just walk into a weapons store and purchase items. He had used the two merchants and the weapons store owner to smuggle and acquire weapons for his Root forces. He had also used his Root forces to help the merchants smuggle other goods to other places. Eventually though, the merchants businesses started to fail. A day before they were murdered, they demanded that Danzo himself come down to the weapons shop so they could meet with him in person. Before Danzo entered the shop he saw the Kyuubi container being thrown out right after walking in and filed the information away. During the meeting, the merchants and store owner had threatened to tell the Hokage all that they knew if Danzo did not pay them more money.

Before the meeting even started, Danzo had already decided to kill them, so he arranged another meeting the following night. Danzo remembered thinking that their disappearances or murders might start an investigation so he needed someone to blame it one. It was then that Danzo remembered the Kyuubi container and he made a plan to not only take care of the three civilians but hopefully acquire the container to be his personal weapon as he had wanted to do for years. He was never able to acquire his weapon because Sarutobi was always protecting the boy and he believed that kidnapping was out of the question.

The reason why Danzo had never outright kidnapped the kyuubi container was because he was sure the boy had several tracking seals on him and Sarutobi would track down the child. Of course he had never seen or had any verification that the seals existed but he theorized that they had been placed by the Sandaime, maybe theANBU, and possibly the Yondaime himself during the initial sealing of the Kyuubi. Its what he would have done if the situation was reversed. One seal may even be tied into the world barrier that surrounded and protected Konoha from unauthorized entry but he had no way of knowing for sure.

Imagine Danzo's fury when the Root ANBU, who kidnapped Naruto and placed him near the scene, reported that the boy didn't have any tracking seals on him. Danzo was livid upon hearing that, and by that time the boy had already been snatched by Kakashi and he had lost his chance to kidnap him again. The only way that Sarutobi had to find the boy would have been to use his crystal ball, which could be easily fooled with the correct application of fuinjutsu to one's body, which Danzo had been using for years to escape Sarutobi's gaze from his crystal ball. How stupid could Hiruzen have been to not put any tracking seals on the boy. What if someone else had tried to kidnap him? Of course Danzo couldn't say anything about it to Sarutobi because the Hokage would become suspicious as to how Danzo knew. Danzo was completely fooled by thinking that the boy had more than one tracking seal when none existed in the first place. That had been Danzo's first failure and it was never even part of his original plan.

Originally Danzo had thought that a civilian judge and jury would preside over the trial. He did not plan on the villagers rioting which forced Sarutobi into bringing in an Arbitrator. Danzo was positive he could convince a civilian judge and jury to turn the boy into his weapon but an Arbitrator was a different story. During the meeting to discuss options for the fate of the container, Danzo had not counted on the Arbitrator making the vote for his suggestion a shinobi council only vote. Danzo had planned on getting the support of the civilian council and winning the vote by bribing and blackmailing them to vote for his suggestion. This had been Danzo's second failure.

After that, Danzo had tried to get the boy placed into a civilian prison as it would be very easy for his Root forces to extract the boy and bring him back to Root Headquarters. This went south when boys prison was chosen as the shinobi prison. It would be much harder to infiltrate there then a civilian prison. This had been Danzo's third failure in his plans.

Shortly after the Arbitrators decisions, Danzo had begun making plans to possible ambush the boys escorts before they made it to the prison but Sarutobi refused to tell anyone on the council when the boy would be leaving for the prison. Danzo's sources told him that the boy had not left any of the village gates, but Sarutobi had probably sent the boy out of the village through the secret ANBU entrance which was behind the Hokage mountain. What Danzo did learn was that Sarutobi had possibly used an entire ANBU squad as well as three of the strongest shinobi in Konoha to escort the boy and that they had already left. This had been Danzo's fourth failure in his plans.

Sarutobi had also managed to get upgraded security in the prison and even selectively chose the guards. This made it nearly impossible to get one of his Root ANBU inside the prison to extract the container. Also there was no way Danzo was going to risk attacking the prison. This had been Danzo's fifth failure in his plans.

The only thing that had worked out that Danzo was in the least bit pleased with were the laws that Sarutobi had passed concerning the container. He had made it illegal to talk about the boy or the incident which Danzo was pleased with. Danzo had not wanted any information to get out about the boy and after the Kyuubi attack he had wanted everyone to think that the Kyuubi was gone and had been defeated by the Yondaime. Sarutobi had stupidly told the entire village about the boy. Unfortunately now because of both of their blunders the boy was in prison and had his chakra completely sealed. By the time the container was released from prison his effectiveness at a shinobi would be slim to none, and his effectiveness as a weapon would be almost zero due to his chakra pathways not being used until after he went through puberty. This had been Danzo's sixth and ultimate failure in his plans.

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	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Inuyasha

Chapter V: Prison

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Camping by that same road, early the next morning

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Years of being a ninja in dangerous situations woke Kakashi from his slumber early in the morning. He had been up earlier for guard duty and had some trouble sleeping because of a nightmare. He was dreaming that he watching television and flipped the channel only to see an infomercial of Gai trying to selling his spandex suits. He did manage to go back to sleep but the nightmare had disturbed him, as had already seen real version the day before

He noticed noises outside of his tent. Thinking the worst he quickly exited his tent with kunai in hand to come face to face with non other than a very awake Maito Guy and a very green Uzumaki Naruto currently wearing his spandex suit. Both were smiling.

'Great Gai must have woken up Naruto. I wonder how long those two have been spending unsupervised time together?' thought Kakashi. He winced slightly as he saw what Naruto was wearing. 'I'm really going to have to speak to the Hokage about Gai spending time with children. Especially since I know he wants to get a genin team eventually.' were the thoughts going through Kakashi's mind as he wondered exactly why the two were grinning like idiots. He noticed that Naruto seemed out of breath, so he hoped Gai was just giving him some training exercises. It was no secret that Gai got up before sunset to begin his insane training, which sometimes lasted throughout the day.

"So, what have you two been up to?" Kakashi asked nonchalantly as began packing up his tent.

"Youthful stuff." Naruto replied and Kakashi winced slightly.

'On some level I'm actually thankful he is going to prison. That way he won't be near Gai for a while.' thought Kakashi grimly.

"Naruto-kun and I have been going through the training regiment that I planned for him and we went through some katas. I was most proud of his stamina. He was fiercely burning with the fires of youth!" Gai said proudly.

Naruto turned to Gai and said, "Gai-sensei!"

Gai turned to Naruto and said, "Naruto!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Naruto!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Naruto!"

Gai got down on one knee and they both hugged each other. A sunset formed in the background with a rocky shore and waves washing against it. Except that they were still in Fire Country and surrounded by forest.

Although Kakashi wanted to look away, he just couldn't. He had tried to shout out for them to stop but he just couldn't seem to form words until the genjutsu stopped. As least he assumed it was a genjutsu as he could never seem to break it.

"Disturbing, very disturbing." said a voice to left of Kakashi. Itachi had come out of his tent and had seen what he thought was a genjutsu, but his Sharingan was not able to identify just what exactly it was.

"I think we should get moving." said Kakashi to everyone. 'The faster we get to the prison, the faster we get Naruto away from Gai.' thought Kakashi. "Naruto-kun don't forget to put your clothes on over you suit." Gai politely reminded the blonde boy. Kakashi really wished they could tree hop to get to the prison faster but Itachi had pointed out at the beginning of their journey that escorting prisoners cannot be done by tree but by foot. Kakashi had reluctantly agreed then but wished he had ignored the rule now.

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It seemed, the closer they got to the prison, the more Naruto's earlier good mood seem to deteriorate. When they were only about an hour from the prison, Naruto was back to the sad mopey child that they had met when they started their journey. This was rather understandable though. In no way was it easy for a child to know that they had killed three people and would be going to jail for just over a decade. The scenery had changed drastically from a nice forest to only rocky terrain with no trees in sight. Also the sky had been covered over by dark clouds from the volcanic activity in the area.

Whereas Kakashi and Itachi weren't really bothered by his mood, Gai was getting to the point were he would explode and do something drastic. Gai had spent about four hours the previous day and nearly three hours in the morning teaching Naruto all that he could before the boy would enter prison. Mostly it was because Gai wanted to boy to be as prepared as possible and keep him busy. The prisoners in the Konoha Strict Correctional Facility were made to work in a mine to work off their debt to society.

(AN: In the anime filler episodes, the prisoners would just dig and move dirt/rocks around from one place to another so I decided to add an open pit mine in the yard of the prison. If the prison was around for any amount of time then that many prisoners would have created a large pit and not be on nearly flat ground as shown in the anime.)

Since Naruto was only five, it was deemed by the Hokage that he would not have to work anywhere near the mine until he reached the age of eight. Naruto had three years to wait until then. Prisoners worked for approximately eight hours a day, so Naruto would have virtually nothing to do for eight hours a day for the next three years, unless the guards found something that he could do. Also Naruto was still affected by Fire Country child labor laws while in prison, so the most that Naruto could work was about five hours a day for five days a week. This was less than half of the other prisoners who worked eight hours a day for seven days a week.

Gai also wanted Naruto to have at least some ability to protect himself while in prison. All of the inmates had their chakra suppressed by a pair of bands with seals on them, one worn on each wrist. So, if Naruto was attacked none of the prisoners would be able to use chakra to enhance their strength and speed, though they were already faster and stronger than Naruto, not to mention the size difference.

(AN: In the anime none of the prisoners seemed have their chakra suppressed, which seems really stupid considering a shinobi's entire body is supposed to be a weapon and the inmates greatly outnumber the guards. One would think they could take over the prison at anytime they want and with little effort.)

It was at this point that Gai couldn't hold it in any longer and needed to do something to liven the boys mood and he just couldn't keep silent for any longer. So he looked at Kakashi and said, "Kakashi my Eternal Rival, it is about time that I challenged you again. Since you were reluctant to pick a challenge I say we have Naruto-kun choose." said a smiling Gai. 'Great..' Kakashi though, '...now he's guilt tripping me into a challenge.' Naruto had perked up at this outburst from Gai and did seem interested in seeing a challenge between the two men. Kakashi was forced to nod reluctantly in acceptance of the challenge.

"YOSH! What kind of challenge would you like Naruto-kun. Taijutsu, a one hundred meter dash, swimming across a lake, a breath holding competition, a climbing challenge, sumo wrestling, or maybe an eating contest?" Seeing as they were surrounded by cliffs and rock formations, Kakashi was sure the boy would pick the climbing challenge. Climbing was actually one of Kakashi's hobbies and he used it for training all the time.

"Sumo wrestling sounds good." was Naruto's reply. Kakashi just stared blankly at the boy. Gai seemed ecstatic and grabbed Kakashi pulling him off the main road. "Wait...what...I didn't agree to that...Sumo wrestling?" came Kakashi's confused and panicked reply. He tried to get away but Gai's grip was unyielding. Itachi looked slightly interested in the upcoming match.

Gai had found a flat spot inside of a trench in the rocky terrain. He then used a kunai to carve a circle on the ground. Kakashi was trying to use this time to change Naruto's mind, which wasn't working. Once Gai had finished the ring, he grabbed Kakashi and placed him at the opposite side of the circle from himself. Behind each competitor was a wall of rock. Gai just stared at Kakashi very seriously, which for the most part made Kakashi feel impending doom. Gai began by spreading his legs apart and crouching slightly with his hands on his knees. Gai brought his right foot up and then smashed it into the ground which was resulted in a small deformation and much spider web cracking. "Gai, aren't you taking this a bit far, this is just a friendly competition." a fearful Kakashi said trying to calm Gai down. Gai was in his sumo wrestling 'zone' and didn't even hear Kakashi, he just lifted his left leg and slammed it down as well. Then Gai placed his right fist on the ground. "Gai..are you sure we can't do rock climbing or something?"

Itachi took it upon himself to be the referee. He stepped up to the circle between the competitors and looked from one to the other. He then brought his extended hand up. Kakashi's eyes widened as he did this. Then Itachi quickly brought the hand down and said in a loud clear voice, "Hajime!" Kakashi's response was very brief and consisted of, "oh, fuck."

From Naruto's perspective, the match was over the second it began. Gai had disappeared. Kakashi had disappeared as well, and the rock face behind where Kakashi was standing exploded.

x-x

The escort group was only minutes away from climbing up the hill and arriving at the prison. Kakashi was currently limping and had his arm over Gai's shoulders for support. Gai had apologized profusely since the match for "letting his flames of youth go out of control." After they had removed Kakashi from the huge hole in the rock face, Itachi had used what limited medical jutsu he had to heal Kakashi as well as he could. Itachi also apologized as he did not know that Gai was that strong. Kakashi was extremely annoyed with everyone else there and in a good deal of pain. Naruto thought what happened was the coolest thing ever. He only wished Gai hadn't won so fast as he didn't really get to see Gai pushing Kakashi out of the ring. Gai had yet to claim any victory over the challenge as he felt very bad about the outcome and it seemed that he probably wouldn't.

As they made their way over the hill, the prison finally came into view. Naruto went vary pale at the intimidating prison. It looked less like a prison and more like the entrance to hell. The prison consisted of a large traditional building on a triangular piece of land in the middle of a lake of lava. At present their seemed to be no way to get to the prison but everyone that wasn't Naruto knew that a draw bridge spanned the gap between the prison and the tower on the mainland. The tower was where they were currently headed for. Once they were in the tower, a signal to the prison would be made and both spans of bridge would connect over the lava and let them get to the prison. Itachi had to keep a firm hand on Naruto's shoulder to keep him from running away in the opposite direction.

They were granted entry into the tower and Itachi showed the tower guards their papers. One of the guards signaled the prison building and the bridge was extended. The group of four made their way to the prison. Not even halfway across Naruto asked in a shaky voice, "Is there anyway that I can just spend my sentence in that tower and not in the prison?" He was not met with a verbal answer just a mere shake of heads. The heat from the lava caused the air to waver slightly and the prison building became more frightening to Naruto than it had been when they were farther away.

Two large doors opened as they neared the prison building and the group was admitted to the prison. They passed through the entryway and the ninja of the group nodded to the guards. They were guided to the cell block by the warden of the prison and two chunins. In order to reach the location where Naruto would be staying they needed to walk through the entire cell block. The cell block consisted of an open area, four stories tall, with walkways on either side and lined with cells filled with criminals. Naruto was beginning to feel very small.

They entered the cell block on the top floor and would have walk down three staircases to the bottom level which did not have many cells but did have the showers, laundry, entrance/exit to the yard, and kitchen. Of course they had to do this while in full view of the entire prison population. It was unfortunate but due to the architecture of the prison, the only place for Naruto to stay safely was actually in the basement where they had renovated some of the solitary confinement cells for Naruto. As they reached the top of the first staircase and proceeded to walk down, Itachi's real mission began.

The Sandaime knew that Naruto would have to walk through the cell block to get to his room. Rather then wait until the prisoners were working in the mine, the Sandaime had chosen to have Naruto walk through the cell block when the prisoners were there. This was were Itachi came into play. As they slowly walked down the three staircases, they would no doubt draw the attention of nearly everyone. Itachi would be using his Sharingan to influence as many prisoners as possible. As they walked down the stairs, Itachi would start casting genjutsu and using the hypnotizing effects of his Sharingan on the prison populace. The goal was to make Naruto seem much more intimidating then he was, while also implant the suggestion that they should not try to mess with the boy. This was further helped along by both Kakashi and Gai releasing subtle killing intent that, to the prisoners, seemed to be emanating from the boy and also helped Itachi's hypnosis. The reputation of all three men was known by most of the prisoners. When they saw three of the strongest ninja in Konoha escorting a small boy, which some recognized as the Kyuubi container, it must mean that the boy was dangerous. This was compounded by the fact that the boy was going to be staying in the solitary confinement area which only the prisoners who were being punished were briefly sent to. It should also be noted that since the prisoners had their chakra suppressed, it was much easier for them to succumb to hypnosis and genjutsu.

As the group reached the last step and headed for a side staircase to the solitary confinement level, or what the prisoners called the 'dungeon'. The prisoners in the cell block had actually remained silent the entire time. Usually they would taunt and jeer incoming prisoners which let the group know that the Sandaime's plan was working. Before getting to the staircase, they passed by a single cell which was a recent addition to the bottom level. This was unusual considering that no other cells were supposed to be on bottom level but most prisoners just figured that the cell had been made to keep the Legendary Stupid Brothers closer to the kitchen and make things easier. As they passed, two large tanned identical men stopped eating, chuckled, and waved in their direction. Naruto gave a small wave back and the brothers continued eating.

The real reason why the brothers had been moved there was to make sure that no one went into the dungeon who wasn't supposed to be there. The brothers were really fed watchdogs and could come and go as they pleased anyway but usually only did when they were hungry.

The group continued on and made their way down a stone staircase to the dungeon. The dungeon really wasn't that big. It was just a row of cells on one side and numerous storage rooms on the other. The cell that they were headed to was at the very end of the hall facing the direction they were walking in. A camera was also situated above the door to watch the hallway.

The trip through the prison had been very nerve wracking for Naruto. He really didn't want to be here. 'Why couldn't the Old Man have done something else instead of this?' he kept thinking. Gai and Kakashi had kept their hands on his shoulders and applied some pressure to let him know that they were there and it did help a little. He had followed Kakashi's advice and had kept his head slightly down and tried not to show any worry, fear, happiness, sadness, regret, or any other emotion at all on his face. He also did not look at any of the prisoners and ignored everything. However while Naruto did that he could feel the countless eyes of the prisoners on all of them and they lingered on him the longest. He was very scared and his heart was beating rapidly in his chest. It was a good thing he went to the bathroom before they entered the prison. The treatment he had received so far hadn't really been all that different from Konoha except it was difficult to tell what people that were watching him were feeling when he couldn't look at them. He hadn't known that he would be staying in the lowest level of the prison. As they passed the solitary confinement cells, Naruto got the feeling that the cell he would be staying in would resemble the ANBU holding cell.

The group stopped at the last door and the warden pulled out his keys. He unlocked the door and they walked in. It definitely hadn't been what Naruto thought it was going to be. The room was actually rather large, and at least four times the size of the cells he saw earlier. There was a bed with metal frame, a short table to eat off of, a desk and chair, a small fridge, several cabinets and a small counter-top and a bookcase filled with books and scrolls. Naruto also had a closet and a door leading to a bathroom complete with shower, meaning that he did not have to shower with the rest of the inmates. This was actually very similar to his apartment, only condensed. Naruto also had a calendar and clock on the wall.

The room had a good amount of space if he moved the table so he could train and go over the katas that Gai had taught him. The room was not only down in the lowest area of the prison to keep him safe and separate from the rest of the prison population but also served to hide the amenities that he had which the other prisoners did not. The Old Man had said that he had the room specially made for Naruto and he delivered. Naruto had already received a teary goodbye from the Old Man when the left Konoha as well as some advice.

'This is actually bigger then my apartment and he doesn't have to pay rent.' thought Kakashi jealously. Although location was everything, and the bottom level of a shinobi prison wasn't exactly an ideal spot. Kakashi had chosen his apartment based on its close proximity to the erotic bookstore. He passed by it every time he went to get groceries.

Itachi thought that the space was rather extravagant for a prisoner but the Hokage did care for the boy. Gai was most impressed with the entire operation and the craftiness of the Hokage to keep the boy as safe as possible while still adhering to laws and decisions of the village and country. The boy;s prison cell was most hospitable and the room itself looked larger than Kakashi's apartment in Gai's opinion.

Naruto walked to the bed and sat down while taking in the room around him. The room was pretty nice. As he looked at his escort, Itachi nodded and left the room. Kakashi and Gai were looking sad. Naruto realized that they obviously couldn't stay.

Kakashi walked forward and ruffled Naruto's hair with his hand. By this time Gai had tears streaming down his face. "NEVER LET YOUR FIRES OF YOUTH DIMINISH!" shouted the sobbing Gai and he gave Naruto a bone crunching hug. The warden told him that they would talk in the morning about the duties that Naruto would have around the prison. Then they all left.

At least a minute had passed since his cell door had closed, (AN: its not a barred door but a solid metal door with two openings, the one near the top was a piece of metal that slid open and closed for guards to look inside and the one at the bottom was to put food in the room without opening the door. So Naruto is in a fully enclosed prison cell with ventilation of course.) and the footsteps were slowly becoming fainter as the shinobi made their way up the staircase and out of the solitary confinement area. 'Now I guess I'm truly alone' Naruto thought.

Please Review


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Inuyasha

Chapter VI: Prison life for me

x-x

Hokage's Office, Konoha

x-x

The Sandaime was currently sitting in his chair filling out the paperwork that was piled on his desk. It had been two weeks since Naruto was taken to prison. The first bi-weekly report concerning the boy had arrive which the Sandaime had arranged to keep tabs on the boy and the civilian council had demanded to make sure that the boy was still locked up in prison. The report was as good as it could be. The ninja guards had found something to keep Naruto busy during a portion of the day and the boy seemed to be adjusting well. That was as good as the Sandaime could hope for at this point

After nearly a month of waiting, Jiraiya had shown up in the village last week to see what the Sandaime needed. When the Hokage handed him the folder, and he read through it, they had a pretty serious verbal battle. Jiraiya couldn't believe what he read and was furious at what happened to his student's son. He also couldn't believe that something was wrong with the seal. The fight lasted for a good hour. Jiraiya had asked why the boys heritage had not been revealed in order to reduce the sentencing and get the boy to stay in the village. In Jiraiya's opinion, the Sandaime had decided to tell only what he felt people needed to know while keeping the rest secret as long as possible and hoping for the best. The Sandaime still firmly believed that Naruto was safer with the surname Uzumaki and not Namikaze. In the end though, Jiraiya did understand why his sensei was not able to do that much, especially after hearing of the riots. It was hard for the white haired pervert to look at the village he had known throughout his youth and early adulthood the same way again.

After the fight had settled down, Jiraiya had informed the Sandaime about what he currently knew of Orochimaru's whereabouts and the group he had joined. The only other information he had was that the group was named Akatsuki, which along with Orochimaru's membership was the only definitive information he could find. The other members were still a mystery at this point. The only good news that Jiraiya had was that Konoha currently did not have any outside threats.

Before Jiraiya left, the Sandaime said that he could visit Naruto at the prison if he wanted. Jiraiya said he would think about it but the Sandaime knew his student too well. Jiraiya had only briefly seen the boy once, and that was just days after he was born. Apparently his student had completely forgotten that he was the boys godfather and that the name Naruto had been chosen out of Jiraiya's first book. 'I guess all of us have made our own mistakes in regard to Naruto. All of my decisions seem to make his life worse in the end. Ironically Naruto might be better off and safer in prison then the village.' were last thoughts of the Sandaime before he began filling out paperwork again.

x-x

Konoha Strict Correctional Facility, Fire Country

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Naruto's first two weeks in prison weren't terrible. He had some trouble adjusting to the isolation and having less space to move around in. In Konoha, although most people hated his existence, he was around people all the time and he could run around the whole village but now his life consisted mostly of one room. Of course the stay in the ANBU detention facility had prepared him somewhat. He had also grown much quieter as there was no one to yell at and no one to hear him. This was probably the hardest part to accept of the past month he had gone through. Naruto had spent several years trying to get people to notice him and acknowledge his existence and now there was no one around. Also, on some level, he was aware that he may not be able to become Hokage any longer. He had trouble trying to accept this: to accept the fact that he had unknowingly been responsible for the death of three people, to accept that the Kyuubi was not dead but merely sealed inside of him, and to accept that people hated him now more then ever before. How could he possibly be Hokage after what he did and what he holds? Would he even be able to become a ninja?

Those three weeks in the ANBU detention facility had been the worst time of his entire life. All of those doubts kept swimming through his head. He cried so much and Yamanaka Inoichi had talked with him several times. His dream had been destroyed by forces out of his control. He could not get the acknowledgment he always sought, and the only thing he could do now was survive. That was the answer he had come up with in the ANBU cell, he would survive and keep going, never giving up, no matter what. By the time Naruto was released, those his age who went to the academy would have already graduated, probably gotten promoted, and gone on cool missions to rescue a princesses or something awesome like that. No matter how much of a head start they had over him, he was determined to surpass them and everyone else. While his drive to become Hokage had diminished his drive to become a strong ninja had not. If he couldn't become of ninja of Konoha then he would find somewhere else or just become strong on his own.

He still hadn't completely gotten over his near breakdown and now he was serving a long sentence in prison. Longer than he had even been alive for. If the guards at the prison hadn't found something for him to do in order to keep himself busy and let him out of his room, his mind would have started thinking about his times in the ANBU holding cell which was something he never wanted to relive.

While the other prisoners were working, a guard would come down to Naruto's cell to unlock it and lead him to an equipment storage room on the first floor. Naruto would spend his time in this room at a work bench maintaining the tools that the prisoners used for mining. The tools in the room were the ones that needed the most maintenance. Naruto's task consisted of three parts. The first part was to take all of the tools that were not broken and sharpen them, mostly with an assortment of filing tools. Most of the workers used either a pickaxe or a shovel, but their were other smaller tools as well. The second part of Naruto's job was to replace broken handles on tools with new handles or to reattach tool heads that had fallen off from their handles. The third part was to salvage what he could from tools that were no longer useful. Eventually, any tool that the miners used would be worn down until it was useless.

The first two days of this was spent learning how to sharpen and repair the tools from a chunin guard. Once he had gotten the hang of it, Naruto was left to his own devices and the room was quite full of tools in need of maintenance. Naruto would be at this for a while before the guards needed to find something else for him to do. Of course Naruto was actually being watched by a camera and he would be searched once he was done for the day. Naruto would get a break for lunch in which a guard would bring him food and then he would get back to work. A five hour work day wasn't really all that much for most but Naruto was still only five and after working with all of the tools, his hands were relatively sore.

After his short work day was over, Naruto would be escorted back to his sell and locked inside until the following morning when his work would begin again, unless it was the weekend in which case he had those two days off. This left a lot of free-time for Naruto. Naruto filled this time with many different activities. He could move around the furniture of his room and make enough space to practice the katas that Gai had taught him along with all of the different exercises that the green man had shown him on their journey to the prison. Naruto would wake up early and go through warm up exercises, followed by practicing the katas Gai had shown him or going through the training regime that Gai had made for him. Naruto had no idea that a person could do so many exercises indoors and wished that someone had told him about these earlier. Gai showed Naruto how to do a plethora of different exercises and even urged Naruto to come up with his own or try to turn the boring work at the prison into training. Surprising it had worked. Naruto had thought of his work as training and tried to outdo himself everyday and it kept his work from being boring and monotonous. As the days past, Naruto's exercise and training regime increased in the number of repetitions he did for each exercise.

Itachi had lectured Naruto on the benefits of meditation and had also shown Naruto how to meditate. Apparently meditation was very beneficial for a ninja. Not only did it help with chakra control, which didn't matter to Naruto right now, but also it could be used to help strengthen the senses as well as ones sense of surroundings. Itachi had explained that through deep focus, a ninja could sharpen several of their five senses and even train with a ninjas' sixth and seventh sense.

During meditation a person could try and focus on a single sense. Usually this was done by also increasing chakra to that sense which had much faster results but it could also be done without chakra. By focusing on one sense a person could begin to increase that sense. Naruto had begun doing this and focused on all of his senses but sight and taste. Ninja could train their sight to see better in dark places but Naruto was already doing this on a daily basis. The entire prison was dark as well as his cell. He had a light but it was only by his desk and did not provide much help except when he was reading. Also their was no real reason for a ninja to try and increase their sense of taste, the only ones that did were the Akimichi clan but Naruto did not know that and the clan did not increase their sense of taste for ninja purposes only for better tasting food.

Itachi taught Naruto that a ninja's sixth sense was for feeling an individuals own chakra as well as the chakra of others around him. It did not take much effort to sense ones own chakra but being able to do this was very beneficial for a ninja. Most ninja were able to sense their own chakra once they unlocked it but when meditating they could get a better 'feel' of their chakra and what happens when the mold and channel it throughout their bodies. This was the main reason why meditation helped chakra control because the better you can feel your chakra, the easier it will be to mold it and channel it how you want to. Most ninja just called upon their chakra when needed and never developed farther than that. It was actually essential to do this in order to begin developing new jutsu. While Naruto's own chakra was sealed he could still try and feel it as well as the chakra of those around him, mainly the guards. A sealed person could still feel their own chakra if they concentrated hard enough but it would still be inaccessible to them.

The seventh sense was a combination of all the other senses that was akin to a 'danger sense' and was extremely useful to all ninja for reacting to an attack as well as offensively for finding other ninja around them. With a properly trained seventh sense, a ninja could get a feel for where the enemy was striking at, and properly dodge the attack, even when they could not see the enemy as ninja mostly attacked from the shadows. This was why it was so difficult to sneak up on veteran ninja as you had to be able to bypass all of their senses in order to attack without them knowing.

The only thing that Naruto had learned from Kakashi was that a good way to pass the time was to immerse oneself in a good book. When Naruto inquired about the book Kakashi was reading, the one-eyed man replied that this book was for adults only and that Naruto couldn't read it for years to come. The first week Naruto was in prison, he actually ignored the bookshelf which was filled to the brim with books and scrolls, but after getting slightly bored with his schedule as Naruto was a person that did not like to become predictable, he found himself looking towards the bookshelf. There was also a compulsion that he had been feeling to look at the books and scrolls. It didn't take long to succumb to this compulsion and his curiosity. Naruto decided just to browse what was in the bookshelf, for future reference of course.

Naruto was surprised to find just what he had been given. The books ranged from a couple of classic novels to history, mathematics, a shinobi/civilian dictionary, geography, and science. A few of the books appeared rather advanced and talked about anatomy and pressure points, nerve clusters and many topics that were not for basic shinobi. One of those books talked about things that ANBU members should know and was even labeled with 'FOR ANBU USE ONLY'. That was really suspicious, as Naruto had no idea why he would have received this book. The scrolls were actually ninja academy scrolls that were not supposed to be given to children not enrolled in the academy. Naruto had an array of topics from basic scrolls on chakra and how it was used, to all of the basic academy jutsu which included the academy three as well as many other academy E and D ranks, survival tactics, strategy, weapons usage and maintenance, what ninja hand-signs were, and even a scroll on basic fuinjutsu which actually included basic versions of the chakra suppression seals that were placed on his shoulders. Naruto still couldn't believe what he had been given. He couldn't use chakra or any jutsu but it would still be useful to know. Also for some reason he had also been given more than one scroll on different escape techniques and tactics. 'Did the Old Man really look through all of these materials before he had them sent here or is he trying to tell me something?' were the thoughts that went through Naruto's mind about the scroll on escape techniques. After that discovery, Naruto had been brushing up on his reading in addition to the exercise, katas, and meditation.

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Time skip – three months since entering prison

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Not much had changed for Naruto in the three months he had now been incarcerated for. He did have a new respect for just how long twelve years of imprisonment was going to be. He still followed the same schedule for the most part. He had convinced the guards to let him out into the yard in the afternoon after the prisoners were done working in the mine so that he could run around the perimeter of the yard for exercise as well as to be outside for a while. Although the view outside wasn't really that great. The sky was constantly dark no matter what time of day, and the outside had an eerie red glow from the lava lake, but he was able to run for about an hour each day. Following Gai's instructions, he made sure to try and get as many laps as he could around the triangular yard in the allotted hour. He was getting faster but it was a slow process and he couldn't use chakra to speed himself up.

Naruto had also been keeping up with his other activities. He had already started making a lock pick while working in the equipment storage room, while facing away from the camera in the room and trying to look inconspicuous. He had left his attempts hidden in the equipment room, and once he made something that could be useful, he would try and sneak it back to his room. Because he was a child, Naruto's small arm could actually reach through the opening in his cell door where the guards slid his food tray to him and touch the lock on the door. It would be difficult, but with time he might be able to pick the lock with one hand while forcing his entire arm and some of his shoulder through the opening. The scroll said it was possible and that was enough for him to try. Of course he had no real idea what to do after he got the cell door open. It wasn't like he could escape from the prison with no chakra, a bunch of trained ninja guards and a lake of lava separating him from freedom, but it was something to do to pass. He bet nearly every prisoner there planned to escape and took steps to achieve it, even if none of them would ever make it out.

Naruto was currently meditating in the way Itachi had shown in. He was sitting on the floor Indian-style with his back straight and his hands resting on his legs taking deep breaths. He was going to try and focus on sensing chakra again today since it was what he had made the least progress with. He had already made progress with his hearing and sense of smell. As Naruto breathed in and out, he suddenly felt a tugging sensation that seemed to be pulling him from the inside. Without thinking he allowed the pull and something happened he had not thought could.

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The Kyuubi was currently very frustrated but not at the lack of a view in his prison nor out of boredom, but because he had been trying unsuccessfully for several weeks to get his container to come to the seal. It would have been simpler if the Old Monkey hadn't placed a seal on top of the bastard Yondaime's work to prevent the boy from accessing the Kyuubi's chakra.

Once they boy's chakra had been sealed and the four elements seal placed over the seal holding the Kyuubi, something had happened, and the Kyuubi needed to talk to the brat about what was happening. '**Ahhh..finally my idiot container was able to make it here**.' though the Kyuubi. The Kyuubi loathed the boy and the Yondaime and nearly everyone else but they both needed to talk about what was happening and as much as the kitsune didn't want to, a deal needed to be made.

x-x

Naruto opened his eyes and expected to see his room, but instead he was in a dark corridor which was flooded with water. The water actually reached up past his waist. He noticed that their were pipes running along the ceiling and water was steadily dripping from multiple places along these pipes

A noise broke through the darkness and assaulted Naruto's ears. It sounded like a gong and seemed to reverberate off the walls and caused ripples through the water. Once the initial sound had dissipated, another struck and had the same effect. Since the corridor behind him was completely opaque and the way in front of him was lighter he started waded slowly through the water. He passed many entryways in the corridor but all were pitch black and gave no indication what was inside. He continued to follow the path ahead of him and the sound kept getting louder.

He turned a corner and entered a room. The sound stopped as soon as he entered. The water level seemed to drop as he entered the room but he also could have been walking slightly uphill. The room was large and circular with a large gate at the opposite end. The bars were gold maybe, or bronze perhaps. Either way it was some type of metal gate but the darkness made it hard to determine what it was made from. The center of the gate had a piece of paper that seemed to hold it shut with the kanji for 'seal' on it. Surrounding the gate, four larger pieces of paper, also with kanji, were placed in a square and these read 'metal', 'wood', 'water', and 'fire'. (these are part of the five chinese elements which show up in the five elements seal) As Naruto approached nearer to the gate he noticed something moving in the shadows and two large slitted red eyes opened and lock onto him. He was now only in knee deep water but he was sure the eyes could see his legs shaking.

After the eyes had opened, an outline seemed to form around the figure and Naruto could make out that the shadows he saw moving were actually tails. There were nine tails in total. At this point Naruto started breathing heavily and wanted to run but he was rooted to the spot by an unknown force. A mouth revealed itself in the shadows and Naruto could see many teeth, which looked larger then he was tall.

"**So you have finally decided to come here to my prison inside your mind from your own prison on the outside!**" said voice full of mirth while smiling intently.

"Kyuubi?" was all that Naruto managed to get out and his weak reply was greeting with loud laughter at the boys frightened expression.

Once the laughter had died down a serious voice said, "**We have much to discuss, you and I."**

Please Review**  
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	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Inuyasha

Chapter VII: From one prisoner to another

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Inside the seal

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"YOU!...YOU BASTARD...YOU RUINED MY LIFE!" Naruto shouted at the silhouetted figure inside the cell with as much of a strong voice as he could muster.

"**Oh my, so you do have some guts. Would you care to explain what you meant by that statement? By the way, your legs are still shaking**." said the Kyuubi with an amused voice. Naruto didn't bother looking down to his knees as he knew what the Kyuubi said was correct.

"you...ruined...my...life." Naruto said in a much quieter voice but filled with more anger. If anything it made the Kyuubi's smile grow larger. He really did love negative emotions.

"Everybody hates me because of you and you influenced me to kill three people!" Naruto said in a serious voice.

The Kyuubi merely tilted its head slightly to the right and eyed the boy closer with its left eye to gauge his response. "**I didn't choose to be sealed in you, the Yondaime chose to ruin your life. I also didn't choose to attack the village**." The Kyuubi said but thought, '**I would have attacked the village anyway if I hadn't been forced**.'

"**As for these people which you claim I influenced you to kill, I can tell you right now that is not true. As much as I don't want to admit it, the Yondaime's seal is still very strong and I cannot influence you now or before now. The most I can do is talk with you like we are doing now. Whoever did kill those three people, did a good job framing you for it**." The Kyuubi said in a slow and serious voice as if to lecture the child.

Naruto thought about this. He really wasn't expecting this kind of answer. "How do I know you aren't lying to me?" asked Naruto suspiciously.

"**Do you honestly think that if I had influence over you I would merely kill three measly civilians out of an entire village of targets. Of course not! I would have gone on a killing spree and tried to bring out as much of my chakra as possible in an attempt to escape the seal and do as much damage as I could to your pathetic village**." replied the Kyuubi.

As much as Naruto didn't want to accept this, it seemed like a true statement and all of his anger that he had built up towards the kitsune since the beginning of the meeting started fading.

"**Now that you have calmed down, we can finally discuss what I called you here to talk about**." said the Kyuubi. Naruto merely looked strangely at the Kyuubi and said, "I'm not letting you out, even if I could."

"**Yes, I was already aware of your choice on that subject, even before you came here, but that is not what I wanted to discuss**. **I wanted to discuss the changes that are occurring which has a great impact on both of us**." said Kyuubi forcefully and in a rather annoyed voice at being interrupted.

"What changes?" Naruto said in a confused and slightly afraid voice.

"**If you let me finish then I'll tell you..**" at Naruto's silence the Kyuubi contineud, "**..When the Old Monkey placed those seals on you something happened with the seal holding me. I am not completely sure as I have little knowledge of fuinjutsu. While you have been on the outside you probably haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary or just wrote it off as being nothing of importance. However, I have been inside here, and I did notice**."

The Kyuubi stopped for a moment to make sure that his less-than-average-intellect container was paying attention and had kept up with what he was saying before proceeding.

"**When the Shinigami...**" at Naruto's gasp the Kyuubi sighed and rolled his eyes, "**..yes the Shinigami, stupid brat! When the Shinigami was summoned to imprison me by the Yondaime and the sealing took place, our souls were effectively 'linked' by the Shinigami when I was sealed into you. If you were to die, then I would die as well because my soul is linked to yours in some way. I have no idea what would happen to us considering I have never come close to 'dieing' as you mortal flesh-bags do. In any case I wasn't worried at the time because I knew that you would eventually use my power and the seal would weaken and give me my freedom eventually. All I had to do was wait patiently. Unfortunately that is no longer an option for me. The seal keeping me inside of you was meant to keep our minds separate to prevent me from influencing you which it still does. Some of my power is also filtered into your chakra coils to increase your chakra reserves. This also has other benefits for you including your stamina and healing abilities. The seal is however not supposed to try and finish what the Shinigami started by 'linking' our souls**." Naruto's eyes widened at this explanation. He had understood most of it and from the last sentence he was starting to get a bad feeling. Also the Kyuubi's voice was getting a little strained and slightly crazed.

"**For some reason, and again I don't know why, the sealing of your chakra and placement of the four elements seal has started some kind of reaction with your seal. Some of your chakra was always taken by the seal to help keep me imprisoned and you were not allowed to access that portion, but since your reserves are so high already it did not matter. But now however, all of your reserves are sealed and a good portion of those sealed reserves are being diverted into the seal for reasons I don't completely know. This large amount of chakra is not needed to hold me in nor is it needed to help siphon off my chakra into you. If too much of my chakra were to be filtered into you, your chakra pathways might explode**." At this Naruto attained a horrified look, much to the Kyuubi's chagrin but the smile faded quickly and was replaced by a scowl and a good amount of killing intent at what the Kyuubi was going to have to say next. "**Instead of just doing nothing, this mass of your unused chakra somehow is continuing the process started by the Shinigami and our souls are merging. No...I should rephrase that...MY SOUL IS BEING ABSORBED BY YOURS!**" The Kyuubi shouted at Naruto and the the force of the shout knocked him over into the water.

"**The process also seems to be happening at an increasing rate as times goes by! By the time your a mere eight-years-old, your soul will have absorbed nearly half of mine and I still don't know how its happening and have no way of stopping it! By the time you are eleven-years-old, you will ****have absorbed my entire soul! After that is done I will cease to exist, I'll be nothing. Dying was one thing. I don't know what happens to you mortals when you die but being condemned to an empty void of nothingness is not what I want. The unknown sounds infinitely better than nonexistence**!" said the Kyuubi while sounding rather angry and slightly panicked.

Naruto who had listened to everything decided to speak up, "So what. I don't see the problem. You'll finally be gone and I will be free from you."

"**So, you don't see a problem then? Do you honestly think that nothing will happen to you when you absorb the soul of the most powerful of Bijuu**!"

Whereas Naruto had been slightly overjoyed to know that in seven years the fox would be gone he was now reconsidering that. "What will happen?" asked a now scared Naruto.

"**A number of things could happen. I am not omnipotent, but I can still guess. So far your body has begun changing and since you are far from completely absorbing or even half absorbing my soul I would warrant that the changes to your body will become much more pronounced over time. You could grow appendages, become something inhuman or a monstrosity, perhaps even something like a demon. Though I don't know the specifics of what you will be, I am however positive that you won't be completely human anymore. However, I can still help you. There is still time to stop this process if you follow my advice. You won't have to let me free but we need to stop the process taking place before it completes itself. I'm sure we can come to an arrangement. I do have something to offer you**." answered the Kyuubi in a triumphant smile. He knew this would get the boy over to his side and in order to save the his own existence.

Naruto was deep in thought breathing much heavier. 'My body is changing! A monster! A Demon! Not human anymore! I'd become exactly what the villagers thought I was to begin with! Should I agree?' were the morbid thoughts going through Naruto's mind. He tried to calm down and think clearly. As he was doing this, several memories came to the surface

Naruto remembered that while he was still in the ANBU detention facility in Konoha and the Hokage had come to talk with Naruto about the Kyuubi, he had mentioned that the Yondaime must have chosen Naruto for a reason to be a jinchuuriki. The Hokage had said that Naruto was just a boy and that none of the things that the villagers said about him were true. A monster or demon wasn't exactly a physical being but it was really a series of terrible decisions and a frame of mind. The world had many monsters in it and perhaps many demons. These were people who made terrible choices and delighted in the pain and suffering of others. The Hokage had said that Naruto wasn't a monster or a demon because he did not have any of these negative qualities. He also said that Naruto had been chosen for this great burden in service to the village. By holding the Kyuubi he was protecting the village from it. That knowledge had also been something that had gotten him through his realization that his dream to be Hokage may never come true. He may not ever become a ninja, but he did have a mission that he was performing for the village everyday of his life, at least that was how the Old Man put it.

With the courage that Naruto had gained from this memory and made a decision, "No, I won't help you." he said in a steady and strong voice. The Kyuubi merely frowned, it was time for another tactic.

"**Oh and why is that**." the Kyuubi said, feigning curiosity.

"Because no matter what I become, I'll know that you are gone and that the village is safe. Even if no one will know or appreciate it." Naruto stated with finality and acceptance.

"**Really? How noble and foolish. I seem to remember you having a chat with the Hokage and him filling your head with this nonsense. Well, let me tell you a little bit about the village you so blindingly and willingly serve**."

"**Did you know that you weren't my first container and that two others came before you**?" The Kyuubi asked politely while smiling evilly.

Naruto was speechless. He wasn't even sure how to respond to that. 'Was it true? Could it be true? Why hadn't he ever known about the others.'

"**Of course they were unknown by all but a select few in the village to keep the containers safe. None of the villagers even knew that there was a container for me besides you**." said the Kyuubi maliciously.

"**For some reason the Hokage that you trust decided to announce to the entire village that you were my container and from that moment on your life became terrible. He could have just kept you secret like the other two but decided not to**." the Kyuubi revealed to a rather stunned Naruto.

"**Do you remember all of the times that you asked the Hokage about your parents or family. He always replied that he didn't know, correct?**" At this point Naruto could only nod yes. "**The Hokage knew all along who your family was. He knew your parents and so did others. That man who brought you here with the silver hair sticking up, he was your fathers student and knows exactly that you are his son. Yet, for some reason no one has every told you. They only give lies to cover things up. Did you know that you were even part of clan which was very influential to the village**?" the Kyuubi delivered in a smooth voice.

Naruto shook his head no and fell to the water on the floor as his legs could not support him and he needed to sit.

"**I thought not, the Uzumaki clan were allies with the Senju, if memory serves, and their symbol was even apart of that forehead protector everyone wears. Unfortunately they were destroyed during the one of your shinobi wars. You would think that someone would remember them. The Shodai was even married to the heiress of the Uzumaki clan. She was my first container**."

Naruto could only stare at the red eyes aglow in the darkness as the Kyuubi continued.

"**Interestingly enough, my second container was an Uzumaki as well. She was forced to become my container without her consent, she was very sad about it. Many people knew her in the village and she had several close friends. I guess they really weren't friends in the end seeing as how they never lifted a finger to help you, after all she was your mother and no one else in the village even has the surname Uzumaki.**"

The last statement by the Kyuubi was the one that affected Naruto the hardest. He was actually having some trouble breathing from the shock of the revelation.

"**Yes, her name was Kushina and she married a man who would later become quite famous. You have probably heard of him. He was the one who sealed me inside of you.**" The Kyuubi stated while looking at his container for a response.

"t-t-the Yon..daime." Naruto managed to get out in a weak voice while trying to wrap his mind around what he was being told.

"**Correct. That bastard Yondaime sealed me inside of his own son in order to protect the village. Most of the village elders knew this information as well as several others I would think. Although I don't think the Hokage ever had any intention of telling you about your parents and the same goes for anyone else. It was easier just to leave you in the dark about it. I would think that you were left some kind of inheritance or something but I doubt they were planning to give you that either. I think the Yondaime's last wish was for you to be seen as a hero but that completely fell through. One would think that the son of a Hokage would be treated better.**" The Kyuubi said in uncaring voice.

When Kyuubi's voice stopped, Naruto was left in complete silence to think about what he had just heard. Everything did make sense. He had always wondered who his parents were and fantasized about them being great ninja. Now he knew that he was right, if the Kyuubi could be completely trusted. He also knew that the Hokage must have been lying to him about it. He must have asked the Old Man twenty times about his parents and received only lies in return? He had even gone so far as to try and check records to see if any other Uzumaki lived in Konoha. 'What had happened to my mothers records?' The Hokage was the one that helped him in his search. 'Did the Old Man already remove her information from record and just sent me searching for nothing?' 'Did he even care about me in the first place?' The answer to the last question was not certain. The Hokage cared enough to make sure he was safe in prison but was that due to him caring for Naruto or caring for the Kyuubi container because the Hokage certainly didn't care for the Yondaime's son? Naruto supposed he may never find out the truth as even if he asked the Hokage he might just get lies in return.

'I guess I was wrong when I thought that the time spent in the ANBU facility was the worst time of my life. This is in some ways much worse than that, I really wanted to just cry right now but I just can't.' thought Naruto. All Naruto seemed to feel now was betrayal from those he trusted and hatred at the village and the Hokage. It was a hatred that he had thought he had put behind him when he promised himself that he would stop crying at his treatment and become the Hokage to gain the acknowledgment and respect that he sought. That was before he was accused of murdering three people and seemed so far away now, it was like a different lifetime. In any case, Naruto would just have to keep moving forward like he had decided. He would survive and become a strong ninja, possibly the strongest, in spite of the village and the Hokage.

What Naruto now wanted were answers from the Kyuubi. "How do you know all this?" Naruto broke the long silence in the room.

"**We Bijuu have the capacity of an animal when we are free in the outside world. We have little thought and terrible control of our chakra.**" The Kyuubi reluctantly admitted to Naruto. "**But when we are sealed into a host, we gain the ability to think on the level of a human. Some of the hosts memories actually stay with us when we are forcibly moved to another host. Its really only an imprint though. We normally don't gain any of our hosts memories at all unless the host shares ****with us. I don't have many of your memories. The moments that I do have were when you were experiencing great stress or strong emotions**."

"Do you have an imprint of my mothers memories?" asked Naruto desperately.

"**Yes and I am willing to share that imprint with you if stop the process**." answered Kyuubi.

"How do I stop the process?"

"**U****nfortunately that is much easier said than done. The complete sealing of your chakra in combination with the four element seal placed on you is causing this. Therefore the best course of action to take is to removal of the seals restricting your chakra on both your shoulders as this should stop the reaction. Seeing as you are not a sealing expert, and don't have access to one or even your own chakra for that matter, you will have to weaken and then break those seals**." Kyuubi replied.

"How can I weaken the seals?" Naruto asked.

The Kyuubi sighed. "**All seals will weaken over time especially while under strain. You will have to put strain on the seals. This can be accomplished by attempting to access your chakra. You are already trying to do that with your meditation. Even though your chakra is sealed or restricted you should still be able to sense it. Once you can sense it, you can try to access it. You won't be able to at first but the harder you try, the more the seal will be strained. Eventually the seal will be strained enough that you can access a very small portion of your chakra. Once this happens, try to mold or channel that chakra and keep trying to draw more. The seals are designed to restrict access to chakra as well as keep you from molding it and channeling it so the more you try to go against what the seal is designed to do, the more you can access of your chakra and keep molding/channeling it. Eventually the seal will start to give and allow you even more access and you will just continue to strain the seal until it fails completely. You only have seven years to do this in. You had better get started soon because you'll need nearly all of those years if you want to make the deadline.**" replied the Kyuubi in a wise voice.

Naruto stared at the Kyuubi. "Have you been doing this with my seal!" Naruto asked in an annoyed voice.

Naruto's question was met with silence on the Kyuubi's part.

"You better answer me or I won't do anything!" Yelled Naruto.

"**Fine, once you started accessing my chakra I was planning to use this method to force you to unknowingly access more to weaken the seal**!" The Kyuubi snarled.

"YOU BASTARD FOX!" Naruto shouted.

"**Don't think were friends brat! I absolutely hate you and would kill you without a moments hesitation if I could. I am only using you to keep myself alive and don't pretend you aren't getting anything out of this deal. If you want those memories then you had better get to work weakening the restriction seals. Once you begin to make progress you will start getting memories from beginning to end and don't even think about trying to trick me failing to make the deadline. ****The best memory is last and you won't get it until the process is stopped**."

"How do I know I can't just wait out the process and get the memories when I absorb you?" Naruto thought in a small burst of cleverness.

"**Because I don't have a human soul brat. The absorbing process that is happening would work that way if I had a human soul. But I don't. I'm a Bijuu and my soul is completely different from that of a humans. Your human and mortal while I am a chakra monster that has taken the form/shape of a kitsune and am ageless. Our souls are as different as we are. The connection that exists between us is rather unique. I don't think something like this has ever happened before. The souls of Bijuu and host always stay separate. Mostly Bijuu are sealed inside of humans but never with the Shinigami. I don't think anyone has ever used the Shinigami to seal a Bijuu into a host and in so doing so form a link between the two souls. Other jinchuuriki are sealed with a human sacrifice or through fighting and sealing of the Bijuu once it has been weakened**." said the Kyuubi while noticing that the boy seemed slightly lost at the explanation.

"**To put it as simple as possible, my soul is essentially becoming smaller while yours is becoming bigger. From what I can tell, your not becoming more like a Bijuu, your soul is becoming something else entirely and I will cease to exist. If the process is stopped, my soul will probably start returning to what it was or maybe it won't. While yours will stay how it is. If the process is not stopped, my soul will continue to shrink until nothing is left, only my chakra will remain inside of you while being shapeless. My memories and knowledge will not be transferred to you because our souls are different they simply cannot combine like the way your thinking. Your soul is merely absorbing the power and perhaps the qualities of my soul to become something else. If you die then my soul will go with yours in death because of the link, but if my soul ceases to exist, you will be fine**."

"What changes will happen to me when I absorb more of your soul?"

"**As I said before, I don't quite know as, to my knowledge, nothing like this has ever happened before. With changes to your soul, your body will most likely change as well, but in ways that have yet to be seen. You have already had several changes that you may have noticed. The biggest change would have to be your eyesight. Have you noticed that you can see perfectly well in the even the darkest of places where no light reaches? That really isn't something held by other Jinchuuriki. Also your healing ability is already far above normal and it seems it will probably continue to increase. As I said earlier, your body may change in ways that I am not yet sure of**."

"I have noticed that my whisker marks looked a little thicker, but it could have been my imagination." Naruto thought out loud.

"**You were born with those marks before I was sealed into you. I don't even know where they came from. None of my previous hosts had those**." the Kyuubi stopped to chuckle "**Its rather ironic that the villagers mistakenly thought that those marks identified you as my container and possibly that I was somehow influencing you when they weren't a result of me being sealed into you in the first place.**"

Naruto thought about it and even the Yondaime did not have those marks on the Hokage monument. From what the Kyuubi said, his mother didn't have them either. He had always pictured in his mind that one of them had those marks on their face and it somehow identified him as being part of a clan or something. After the Hokage told Naruto about the Kyuubi, he even mentioned how Naruto was marked as the Kyuubi container by his whisker marks.

Naruto was removed from his thoughts when the Kyuubi started speaking again, "**Since we have nothing left to talk about, you can leave now. Don't forget to work on breaking those seals brat or you won't be getting any memories**."

"Umm...how do I get outta here?" Naruto asked while looking around for some kind of exit.

"**Its really simple. All you have to do is close your eyes**." responded the Kyuubi.

Naruto's face showed his disbelief that all he had to do was close his eyes. He eyed the fox wearily as if expecting him to try something, but decided to try it anyway. Naruto closed his eyes and when he opened them he was, oddly enough, back in his room meditating on the floor.

'I guess that wasn't just a dream or something and I should probably get working on weakening the seals.' Naruto thought as he looked at the clock and only saw that about three minutes had passed despite it feeling like hours in side his mind. 'Great.' Naruto thought, 'Now I have to spend most of my time weakening seals. This is going to be a really boring couple of years.'

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	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Inuyasha

Chapter VIII: Boredom leads to discoveries

x-x

Time skip – six months since entering prison

x-x

After speaking to the Kyuubi, prison life had stayed mostly the same for Naruto. He fixed tools for a portion of the day and the rest was spent with a large portion for meditation to try and weaken the chakra restricting seals on his shoulder or just regular exercise. Naruto was very happy that the guards did not put the chakra restricting cuffs on him like they did the rest of the prisoners. They tried but the cuffs were always too big and since the Sandaime had already sealed off his chakra, Naruto was the only prisoner who did not wear the cuffs.

His meditation was going slow but with three months of training he had managed to sense his chakra. Naruto tried everything he could to access it in anyway. He had attempted to bring some chakra forth but failed. He tried to tug or pull on the smallest portion he could but also failed. He then attempted to try and mold it or channel it in someway along his pathways but failed again. The most that he got was when he tried to spin his chakra going on a suggestion that the Kyuubi had given him after he got frustrated. He received the briefest sense that he had 'nudged' his chakra in one direction but not the other. This was his big success in three months of trying. At that point he knew why the Kyuubi said that he would need those seven years.

In order to keep himself from becoming frustrated at his lack of success, Naruto had finally finished making his lock pick. The scroll he read informed him that he should purchase a standard shinobi lock picking set, which wasn't helpful in the least. The only thing that Naruto had were pictures of the typical instruments that were used and he had to construct one from scratch in the equipment room, while under camera surveillance. He went through several prototypes before he finally got one that worked. His first tools didn't even fit into the key hole on the door.

The reason Naruto wanted to get out of his cell was mostly to explore. If the prisoners were locked up at night then there shouldn't be a problem. He would have to watch out for the ninja guards as he had no idea if they patrolled the prison at night. Also there was the problem of getting past the camera in the hallway outside of his prison. The camera was situated above the door of his cell and faced the hallway. So if someone came down to see Naruto, the guards would know about it. The hallway itself did provide some cover in the form of spaced shadows. The ceiling of the hallway had lights spaced about fifteen feet apart and the hallway was about fifty feet long. This left areas of light and areas of shadow as the lights themselves were very cheap and barely illuminated half of the hallway. Because of his eyesight, Naruto had no problem with dark areas or shadows. However, somehow he would have to get past the illuminated areas and stay off of the camera in order to make it to the staircase which would take him to the first level of the prison. Naruto would need to be very fast to not be seen by any guards watching the camera feed. As such he was going to just stick with picking the lock at this point in his schemes of breaking out of prison. That was now one of his main goals after learning from the Kyuubi of his innocence.

x-x

Currently, Naruto was working in the equipment room again. He was using a reaper file to sharpen a pickax when he was broken from his repetitive work by voices. Naruto was curious as all of the guards were on duty and the prisoners were in the yard working. He went to put his tool away in a rack that was close to the door and was watchful of the camera in the room. Naruto put the tool then pushed the open just far enough for him to look through.

To people were standing in the shadows some distance away from the equipment room. Despite both men being hidden in the shadows, Naruto easily identified one as a chunin guard and the other as a prisoner from their clothing. Naruto used his training to focus on his hearing and find out what was going on as his curiosity was definitely peaked now more than ever.

The prisoner asked the guard, "Did you bring what we agreed upon?" The guard merely nodded and pulled out a little orange book. The prisoner looked around and pulled out a scroll.

"These had better be the jutsu we agreed upon." said the guard while looking at the scroll.

"Its all there, now gimme the book." the prisoner replied. Both people exchanged items and examined what they had been given by the other. "If this isn't accurate, I'll be back for a routine search of your cell and confiscate that new book of yours. Now get back to the yard. Your bathroom break is over." the guard said and both men left.

Naruto calmly went back to his work bench and chair. He acted as though nothing had just happened while being mindful of the camera. He sat down and took another tool out, then examined it. Determining that it also just needed to be sharpened, he set to work with another file while he thought about what just happened. 'A prisoner and a guard just met in secret. They exchanged a scroll and a book. The guard said the scroll had jutsu. That book looked familiar.' Naruto thought while still sharpening the tool. His mind had finally put together what exactly occurred. 'The prisoners here are ninja prisoners and know jutsu. The guard was a chunin and wanted the jutsu. The guard gave the prisoner the same book that I saw Kakashi reading.' Naruto realized. 'Kakashi said it was for adults and all of the prisoners are adults. Do they all want those books? They were willing to give up a whole scroll of jutsu for just a single book.'

Even though Naruto was young and was not the sharpest tool in the equipment room, he definitely saw an opportunity. At present, the only jutsu that Naruto had any idea about were simple academy jutsu that were in the scrolls in his room. A chunin would already know those jutsu and would want more advanced jutsu. Eventually, Naruto would be escaping this prison, that much was certain. After escaping he wouldn't be able to go back to Konoha and he would be on his own. He might need jutsu in order to protect himself. 'That Itachi guy was constantly looking for threats on the way to the prison and we had barely left Konoha. There must be some really nasty people out there if he was that concerned when they were still so close to the village. Though Gai and Kakashi didn't seem that concerned but they were a lot older and Gai was a freaking beast. I still remember when he put Kakashi through that solid rock.' Naruto chuckled slightly at this memory because the Kyuubi had told him that Kakashi knew about his parents and he could no longer trust the silver haired scarecrow.

'So the entire prison is filled with shinobi that know all kinds of jutsu and techniques. I need to get a hold of those jutsu.' were Naruto's thoughts.

Being that Naruto was very young, he believed that all ninja needed flashy jutsu in order to be strong. In reality, however, a strong ninja is able to properly use what they know to attain what they want. This does not mean knowing a thousand jutsu but knowing how to use what jutsu you have to the best effect. Most ninja got by with only knowing fewer than twenty jutsu of varying rank. Few ninja knew or could perform jutsu over B rank since the majority of ninja in a hidden village were genin and chunin rank. More often then not, ninja were killed by ninja tools (kunai, shuriken, swords, and explosive notes) or taijutsu rather than ninjutsu as this conserved chakra and stamina for other battles. Of course Naruto didn't know this and in his mind powerful jutsu made powerful ninja, which wasn't always the case.

Thoughts of acquiring powerful and unique jutsu filled Naruto's mind for most of the day. He still had yet to actually come up with a plan on how to get the jutsu but that didn't stop him from dreaming of all the wicked techniques he would eventually know. This lasted until his now sensitive ears heard something else while he was running around the perimeter of the yard for his allotted one hour. One chunin guard was watching him and another came up to talk with the first.

"Jeez can you believe how fast that kid has gotten. He's already at genin speed and hes not even six yet or using any chakra. How long has he been running?" asked one guard to the other

"About fourth months now. I know, I can't believe it either. He only runs for an hour a day." responded the second.

Although Naruto was only now nearing their standing position, he gave no indication that he had heard them and didn't even look at them. He just kept on running until his time was up. 'Gai said that I would get faster the more I kept at it. Why do they seem so surprised? Maybe I should ask Kyuubi.' Naruto thought and was slightly nervous at what the guards seemed to notice but he didn't. When he had originally started running, he made it the full hour but was completely out of breath. As the months passed he had been getting much better, but he had no idea that his results were above the norm.

x-x

A loud chuckle could be heard through the the room that echoed off the walls. "**So you finally noticed that your body has been getting stronger and not completely because of the training you have been doing**?" said the Kyuubi to the blonde boy in front of his cell. "**You do a good amount of training considering all the time you spend trying to weaken the seal.**"

"Of course I do. I followed Gai's training regiment exactly. Stretching, situps, different push ups, calisthenics, running, going through katas, and I even use a piece of exposed reinforcing steel in the ceiling of my room for pull ups. I keep increasing the amounts too."

"**But it really isn't enough to be getting the results that you have, especially in your speed. It seems that the muscles in your body have begun to change, along with your bones. In time, I believe that your muscles will far surpass those of a human in terms of power, speed, and endurance. Your bones will no doubt become stronger as well. Right now they are just beginning to change. This is why you are experiencing above average results. You are also becoming stronger faster because of your healing abilities. You recover faster but in order to really take ****advantage of this you might want to wait.**" Naruto got a confused look at this and the Kyuubi explained, "**Your muscles heal so fast that you aren't able to get the full benefit from your training unless you really push yourself into the ground. As of right now it's really up to you whether you want to push yourself harder to become stronger faster. Since you are still a brat, it really might not be very helpful to you to try this. With the food you are being provided, you might end up becoming more malnourished should you try. In the future, should you start strength training, you would benefit greatly from your healing abilities along with a proper diet. Right now it is best just to get stronger a little at a time. You wouldn't want to scare your guards**." the Kyuubi warned with a slight chuckle at the end.

"So I could push myself harder and get better results, but you don't think I should." repeated Naruto. "Why didn't you tell me about the new changes to my body?"

"**I am not imprisoned here to give you update reports every time something happens. I only really check once in a while. By the way, you might want to keep growing your hair out longer**."

Since Naruto was in prison he really hadn't thought about his hair so he just let it go but he got a bad feeling about what the Kyuubi was trying to tell him. "Why would I need to grow my hair out longer?" Naruto asked in a wary voice.

"**To cover up your ears of course**." Kyuubi replied slightly amused and as if the answer was completely obvious.

"Whats gonna happen to my ears!" shouted Naruto, slightly afraid of the answer.

"**Which pair**!" The Kyuubi replied while trying to hid a smile.

"WHICH PAIR! I ONLY HAVE ONE PAIR!" screamed back Naruto.

"**Right now you only have one pair**." corrected the Kyuubi with a small grin. "**That may not be the case in the near future**." said the Kyuubi, now fully smiling.

"...another...pair...in the future.?" was Naruto's dumbfounded response.

"**Yes, the pair of ears you have now will most likely become rather pointed near the top. Your second pair of ears will grow on the top of your head. From what I can tell it will be a pair of fox ears, possibly courtesy of me and the fact that I have the form of a kitsune**." the Kyuubi stated with a cheery smile.

Naruto was now trying to say something but no words would come out. He looked like a fish out of water. He also looked rather panicked.

"**Whats the matter? You should be thrilled to have a fully function pair of fox ears. You'll probably be able to hear just about anything in the direction that you aim them in for nearly a quarter of a mile if you learn to properly enhance them with chakra. You can determine where they are coming from and how far away they are too. You'll even be able to hear the annoying radio signals that ninja use. Of course you can't tell what they are saying but it should help you avoid patrols using radios to communicate, as you can tell where they are and how far away they are as well. Those ears will even be able to hear through a thick layer of solid rock and that ****building material you pathetic humans use (concrete). Just watch out for loud noises as they will definitely hurt your new ears**." The Kyuubi explained rather ecclesiastically.

Naruto gave it some thought and decided that there was nothing he could do to stop it and the ears did sound very useful. "How long until they appear?"

"**Maybe a year. Probably right after you turn eight when the process is half complete**." was the Kyuubi's response.

Naruto merely nodded in understanding and was about to leave when he was stopped by the Kyuubi clearing his throat.

"**I guess that you had forgotten, but we do have to keep the arrangements of our little deal**." spoke the Kyuubi.

"Look..." Naruto said rather annoyed. "...I'm trying as hard as I can to weaken those seals..." but he was interrupted by the Kyuubi.

"**I meant about my side of the deal**." said the Kyuubi.

Naruto thought about it and realized that he had yet to get any memories from his mother. He was about to start yelling at the Kyuubi but realized that the Kyuubi had brought it up in the first place and it was he that had forgotten.

"When will I get them."were the words that Naruto decided to say.

The Kyuubi closed his eyes and openings in the wall appeared just a little ways away from the cage. Naruto stared at them. "I thought that you were completely sealed." Naruto spoke in a wary voice.

"**I cannot give you any power and you cannot take it. I also cannot influence you but memories that are not my own have nothing to do with it. When I was removed from my previous hosts their entire memories were imprinted onto me. Even I don't know all that is contained in the imprint as I have never bothered to look. As for the two doors, which you have yet to ask about but I know you will, each is for one of my hosts. The right one is your mother Kushina. The left is Uzumaki Mito, wife of the Shodai. If you want you can view her memories as well, I don't really care. The best way to view them is to wait until you are asleep. Parts of the memories will appear to you as dreams in chronological order. You will remember everything in the morning. Also you will be experiencing several days worth of memory each night so you will most likely wake up with a headache**." the Kyuubi finished.

"Why are you keeping your end of the deal and even telling me about what I forgot?" asked Naruto in a confused voice.

"**Because I don't want to cease to exist and therefore will keep my end of the deal**." replied Kyuubi.

Naruto nodded. He wasn't really expecting that answer but it did make sense. He closed his eyes and when he opened them he was back in his room. For once he was actually looking forward to sleeping on his lumpy mattress tonight.

Please Review


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Inuyasha

Chapter IX: Progress is good

x-x

Time skip – twelve months since entering prison

x-x

Naruto's sixth birthday came and went and he was more than halfway to his seventh. The Old Man had sent him more books but also the same shuriken and kunai practice set that he wanted right before the incident. The Kyuubi laughed loudly at the irony which was that Naruto was treated better in jail then the village. The Hokage was the only person in the village who had ever given him a present. The father and daughter team at Ichiraku Ramen Bar gave him a free bowl of ramen on his fifth birthday but it had been over a year since he had seen them and even then he hadn't really known them for that long. Their stand was the only eating area in Konoha that would serve him and he had gone there regularly after being kicked out of the orphanage when he was four. He had known them for a year but he really couldn't expect any gifts from them after what happened. They were probably horrified that he had supposedly killed three civilians and forgot about him or tried to forget. Naruto hadn't even been able to send any letters out and he had not received any letter until his birthday. The guards had let him write a single letter to the Hokage in order to respond to the Hokage's letter and presents that he received. Other than that, Naruto was cut off from the outside world. The Old Man was not even able to visit Naruto because he was so busy and couldn't find time to come to the prison. Naruto was not sure what to think about that.

The memories he had received from his mother and also from the Uzumaki heiress were a good change of pace. Naruto received memories in his sleep every night and they were composed of several days worth from each women. The beginnings of his mother's memories was rather sad. Especially when she was forced to become the Kyuubi container. That had made Naruto very angry at the village but the words of Mito-san on that day were what had stuck with Naruto. Did he need love? What is love? How would he fill himself with love? These had been three questions that Naruto still thought about since hearing Mito-sans speech to his mother. Once he was out of prison, he would try to find answers to these questions.

He had found both sets of memories very informative as both girls learned how to be a ninja at an early age. Naruto had essentially gotten free training from his own clan and also Konoha. His mother's memories switched to being at Konoha after the destruction of Uzushiogakure, which Naruto was still rather sad about. She then started attending the ninja academy and Naruto was able learn basic ninja knowledge that he previously found difficult to learn from just reading a scroll. Naruto also saw his father in those memories. Mito-san, being the clan heiress and born decades before Kushina, received special training from the head of the Uzumaki clan as well as several elders. Naruto was extremely interested in learning about his clan and had already started learning the forms of the Uzumaki taijutsu style from both womens' memories. This was a very good thing because he was already getting bored with the small amount of taijutsu that Gai had taught him. He was fascinated to find out about his clan specializing in fuinjutsu and how they were related to the Senju. The Uzumaki clan members all had longer than average life spans and used some ninjutsu and kenjutsu along with their vast knowledge of fuinjutsu. It was not uncommon for some members of the Uzumaki clan to reach one hundred and twenty years of age? Naruto was really looking forward to gaining the knowledge of his clan and had asked for more scrolls and writing supplies in his letter to the Hokage. He wanted to write everything down and learn all of the fuinjutsu and ninjutsu from both sets of memories that he could and master these techniques in the future.

From the memories, Naruto knew Mito-san would be starting to learn the basics of kenjutsu soon which Naruto was very interested to learn and he had asked the guards if he could have something to practice with. The warden of the prison had apparently asked the Hokage who approved and Naruto now had several practice swords and a short scroll on basic kenjutsu training and tanto use. Naruto had a bokken as well a shinai and a smaller shinai to practice with. Naruto asked the guards why he was given three swords and they replied that ninja use more than just one type of sword. Some ninja use a katana while others may only use a ninjato or tanto. The Hokage had just sent three so that Naruto could determine which was more useful to him. Some ninja preferred a curved blade over a straight or vice versa. There was also the decision of length and which was better: to have a better reach or be able to use a blade in more enclosed areas. Of course the Hokage did not see any problem giving the boy wooden weapons as Naruto was still a child.

The process of weakening the chakra restricting seals on his shoulders was still progressing at a slow pace. Naruto could now spin more of his chakra and was able to pull and tug at his chakra. He couldn't channel or mold chakra through his pathways yet but he was actually progressing slightly faster then the Kyuubi had hoped. Once he was able to pull a small amount of chakra forth he might even be able to start doing the chakra exercises which were outlined in the scrolls that he had but this would take much more time to achieve. The act of pulling chakra outside of his body, molding chakra, and moving chakra through his pathways would also weaken the seals faster but he needed to be careful as he might alert the guards if they could sense his chakra usage. Naruto had also discovered while meditating that he could sense a guards chakra if they were in the corridor outside the door to his room but not any farther.

Nartuo's plan to escape, which was not a fully formed plan as he was developing it as time passed, was progressing as best as it could. His skills at lock picking progressed and a month ago he was able to unlock his door and then lock it again. He didn't need the guards to know that he could unlock his cell door so he made sure to always keep it locked after he was practicing. Against his better judgment, Naruto had ventured outside his room. He kept completely to the shadows when moving down the hallway to avoid being spotted on camera and tied one of his gray shirts (all of his clothes consist of gray shirts and pants) on his head to hide his blonde hair from view. He actually had to jump over the areas which were illuminated by the ceiling lights and he had yet to alert the guards that he had made it all the way to the staircase at the end of the hall which lead to the first floor.

As of right now, he had not gone any farther because he had no sure way to detect any guards that might patrol the prison at night, if they patrolled at night. He kept practicing with his hearing and sense of smell and he had gotten better at detecting with them but that may not be enough. According to the Kyuubi it would be about six months before Naruto received his fox ears. They would be extremely useful in detecting the guards, based upon what the Kyuubi said but he had to wait. Naruto hoped that his hair was long enough to completely cover the new ears. His hair was already sticking out in long spiky blonde bangs in every direction from his head and the length was around a foot.

In any spare time that he had, which seemed only to be during his five ours of work during the weekdays or during his open weekends, Naruto was still trying to figure out how he could acquire jutsu from the prisoners. He hadn't forgotten the exchange that he had seen between prisoner and guard. To get jutsu he would need to get his hands on something that the prisoners wanted which consisted of, in order from less desired to most desired: newspapers, food, cigarettes, and Icha Icha Paradise. Apparently they held the little orange book in higher regard than anything else and Naruto still had no idea what was in it. The problem he was still facing was that he really couldn't get his hands on any of these items, unless he asked the Old Man which was really out of the question. Naruto also would only be able to get jutsu at night from prisoners which would be very risky. He could try and be both the supplier of items to the prisoners and the supplier of jutsu to chunin guards but that would be just as difficult. How in the world would he contact any of the parties involved? He couldn't just go to the prisoners and ask for their jutsu and he also couldn't go to random chunin guards and ask if they are interested in jutsu. Naruto also had no contact with any of the prisoners from his isolation in the bottom floor of the prison. The whole situation was complicated and the only thing that Naruto definitely knew was that he wanted those jutsu.

x-x

Presently, Naruto was sweeping parts of the prison on the guards floor while the inmates were in the mine or performing a couple other duties. Naruto had repaired every tool in the equipment room several months after his sixth birthday and had to do something else until enough tools needed maintenance again. Naruto had been given numerous small jobs since then. He had been tasked with cleaning the shower room, then some of the guard rooms, and now he was sweeping. Between those jobs, Naruto had also returned to the equipment room to repair tools as they piled up. During these small jobs that Naruto was tasked with, he had been given a chance to listen to the talk of the guards that weren't currently watching the prisoners and he heard some informative things.

Apparently, seeing as Naruto only recently learned of it, not all of the prisoners worked in the mine. Other things needed to get done in the prison. Laundry needed to be washed and while the prisoners did not cook food, they did wash dishes and peal vegetables. Naruto had also learned, after spending a year in prison, that the prisoners were mining chakra-enhancing metal. There were only small amounts in the ore that they were mining but it was a source that benefited Konoha. After removing what little there was of the unique metal from the ore and processing it, the metal sold for a high price or could be used by Konoha shinobi in weapons. Ninja could channel chakra easily into regular steel but chakra-enhancing metal did what the name claimed and not only conducted chakra but enhanced the conducted chakra and made it easier to flow and mold chakra into the weapon for longer periods of time. A weapon could be made entirely from the metal, which would cost a small fortune, or small amounts of chakra-enhancing metal could be added to the steel used to make a desired weapon. Weapons could also be attuned to a certain type of one of the five nature manipulations during forging to better conduct a single nature type. Throw-away weapons like shuriken and kunai usually had no trace of the unique metal in them.

This was exactly what one of the guards had told Naruto after he had finally asked. The guard also mentioned a bet concerning Naruto and when he would finally ask one of the guards about what the prisoners actually mined. Naruto wasn't sure who won but he was rather annoyed at the bet and stayed silent since then and the scowl never seemed to leave his face for the rest of that day.

In about two hours he would be finished. He was already starting to lose his mind at the impossible task. 'No matter how many times I sweep an area, there is still dust or dirt or whatever the hell it is!' though Naruto angrily. Naruto had wondered why it was so difficult and realized that it was probably due to the mine and dirty workers constantly tracking stuff from the mine into the prison. 'The bottoms of my feet are already black.' Naruto lamented in his head as even a good washing would not get the bottoms of his feet clean. None of the prisoners wore any type of footwear, even in the mine.

Naruto was glaring at the floor again when several chunin guards walked up the staircase down the hall while talking to each other. Naruto focused on his hearing to listen to their conversation as he had done with every conversation that took place near him since he got in the prison.

"...yeah we put three of them in solitary confinement. Found contraband in their rooms during our routine search. Two of them had made weapons and one stole a chisel. We also found a bunch of other stuff that we collected." said the first guard.

"I heard a warden on one of the other shifts lets his buddies take anything they want from the confiscation room." said second guard.

"Yeah I heard that too. That sucks, I wish our warden would let us do that." replied the the third and last guard.

"To bad we just can't go down there and get something for ourselves. When I was in their I saw some 'stuff' that I wanted." said the second.

"You probably just wanted some porn or one of the Icha Icha books we confiscated." said the third and the others laughed.

They started talking about other things as they entered the break room and Naruto stopped paying attention as he was lost in his own thoughts as he swept the floor. 'Confiscation room, where the hell is that?' Naruto tried to think where the room would be in the prison as he did not even know about a room like that before hearing it just now. It was probably due to the fact that he was either in his cell or the equipment room for nearly a year. Naruto had no idea that they even did routine checks on cells. 'Do they check my room too?' he thought idly before getting his thoughts back to what was important. Now that Naruto had heard about this room, he was determined to find it as it could be very useful to him.

Naruto had only recently found out about the guard shifts while overhearing some guards complain about something. There were several guard shifts for the prison. Each shift had a good number of chunins and some jonins with the highest ranking jonin being in-charge of the prison. That person was dubbed the 'warden' by the other guards in a joking manner at first but it had apparently stuck. Every two weeks, a fresh set of guards came into the prison and the old shift left to go back to Konoha.

From what he now knew, there was a room in the prison which held all of the confiscated items. One of the wardens on a particular shift let his friends take what they wanted from the room. 'This means that if I find the room and I can sneak into it without being caught, that I might be able to get my hands on something that I can trade directly with the prisoners for jutsu. I won't have to worry about trading with the guards at all. Especially if guards are already taking stuff from it.' thought Naruto deviously. 'Now I just need to find the room. They said something about it being 'down there' meaning it is below this floor.' Naruto's mind was now racing to find an answer. 'I am on the fifth floor right now. Below me are three floors of nothing but prison cells. That leaves the first floor. There's one cell, the stupid brothers, the equipment room, the kitchen, the showers, and that's about it. The only other rooms that I haven't been in but I know about are the supply room and that is supposed to have the well in it. But then...no! It couldn't be! Could it?'

By the process of elimination, Naruto's thoughts had moved from the first floor to the bottom floor or the 'dungeon' where Naruto's room was. That level had all of the solitary confinement cells (Naruto's cell used to be two solitary condiment cells but they tore down of the walls and put a full bathroom). It also had three rooms on the other side of the hallway from the confinement cells. Not a single time that Naruto had left his room did he actually pay attention to what was in those rooms or even what was written on those doors. He had probably read them but not actually thought about what he was reading. 'When I'm done here and a guard takes me back to my room, I will find out.' Naruto thought, now more determined than ever to get those jutsu.

x-x

This was the moment that Naruto had been impatiently waiting for. Two hours ago he did not even know that such a room existed and now he was praying that it was where he thought it was. Each footfall on the steps of the staircase to the 'dungeon' sounded far louder than usual to Naruto's ears as he and the guard escorting him made their was back to his room. They made it to the bottom and Naruto's heart was racing with anticipation.

The first door read 'STORAGE' in big red letters. 'That probably isn't it.' thought Naruto sadly but he still had two other doors to choose from. The labeling on the next door almost caused Naruto to stop walking. Although it was very dark, his eyes made out 'CONFISCATION' in the same big red lettering. 'THATS IT!' was the thought running through Naruto's mind as he attempted to calm himself down and not alert the guard to anything.

Naruto was both excited and stunned as the guard locked him into his room. The guard would be back later to let Naruto out into the yard to run but after 'lights out' tonight he would be able to finally see what was in the room. 'Its going to be difficult though.' as Naruto knew that getting into the room while being watched by a camera would not be easy. He had managed to keep to the shadows before and avoid any detection in the previous times he had left his room. This however, was different. He had to pick the lock of the door and then manage to get into the room without the camera seeing anything. Naruto really didn't know exactly what the guards could or could not see on those cameras. Since the door was a dark gray in a shadowed area, it was likely that no one would notice it being opened but he would have to get inside quickly. Once inside he would also have difficulty telling if any guards were around outside because he would have to shut the door completely.

It probably would have been better to plan out exactly what he was going to do but Naruto was always impatient and he did not want to wait any longer. He had already spent months trying to think up a way to acquire some of the knowledge that his fellow prisoners obviously possessed.

In his impatience and greed, Naruto forgot what else the guard had said. One guard had mentioned that three inmates were placed in the solitary confinement cells in the dungeon. There were a total of eight solitary confinement cells in the 'dungeon'. It was only with sheer luck that Naruto had not ventured outside of his room during the nights when someone had been in those cells. Otherwise they may have ratted him out. Not many people were placed in solitary and unless whatever happened to get them there was serious, they would at most be alone in the cell for two days. While walking past the cells, Naruto had not noticed that there were people present in them despite having vastly enhanced senses. He was too distracted by the room on the opposite side of the hallway. Even when a guard let him out to run in the yard and they returned, he still did not notice any other presence.

x-x

The time had come. Several hours had passed since 'lights out' which was usually around nine at night. Naruto only knew this because of his clock in his room. It was now the perfect time to try to get into the room and Naruto was not going to pass up the chance. He was eager to see what was inside and what he could possibly use to get jutsu. Of course he had no idea how he would go about exchanging anything he found for jutsu with the prisoners. This was really just to explore the room and he did not plan on taking anything yet. The guards were not supposed to change shifts for another couple of days and Naruto had no idea where to hide anything he took. He still didn't know if the guards searched his room like they did the other prisoners and he was already practically in solitary confinement. He really didn't want anything worse.

The bottom opening of his door slid up and a small hand reached out towards the lock. He made sure not to drop the pick he was holding and forced as much of his arm through the opening as he could. He then spent about two minutes picking the lock. It was difficult with only one hand but the scroll said it could be done and did give tips. He turned the pick sideways and his cell door unlocked.

Naruto slid out into the corridor and shut the door behind him, leaving it unlocked. Mindful of the camera in the hallway, which was placed in the corner above his door, Naruto kept to the shadows and slowly made his way down the hall. Naruto was very lucky that the camera did not face his door nor did it show a good sized area in front of his doorway. His blonde hair was covered by an old shirt. The clothes that he wore were actually stained so that the gray was now nearly black He had realized that during his work in the equipment room that the tools had a lot of dark soil or maybe even soot still on them and he covered one of his sets of clothes along with the shirt covering his hair in it to better hide himself from the camera.

He made it past the first door and the first ceiling light, so slowly continued on. He was only moving a single step at a time to avoid an movement being seen in the shadows by anyone watching the camera. After several minutes, Naruto finally reached the door to the room of confiscated items. So far everything was going well. Naruto pulled out one of his lock picks and moved to unlock the door.

"Something tells me your not supposed to be out of your cell. Especially at this late an hour." said a hushed disembodied voice in the hallway.

Naruto froze and looked towards the staircase. There was no one there and no guards were in the hallway. It wasn't until he looked to the opposite side of the hallway that he saw a pair of eyes and part of a head looking at him through one of the openings in the cell doors. For some reason though, and Naruto only briefly noticed, the opening on his cell door was larger than the ones on these by several inches.

(AN: The cells on this level had doors and not bars and each door had two opening. One near the top for guards to look through and one near the bottom that a food tray was put through. This eliminated the need for guards to open the cell door until the solitary confinement period was over and also allowed Naruto to reach out and unlock his door.)

For several minutes both sets of eyes stared at each other in silence. Naruto was cursing in his head at completely forgetting the fact that three prisoners had been placed in the solitary confinement cells earlier today. 'SHIT! I was caught by a prisoner!' he thought.

The pair of eyes in the cell noticed what Naruto was carrying in his hands. "Hoho, so I see your trying to get into the confiscation room. Hmmm..." the same hushed voice said and Naruto realized he would be in even more trouble if he was caught now because he wasn't just out of his cell but trying to break into somewhere he wasn't supposed to be.

Naruto's mind was now a jumble of thoughts. He was trying to find a way out of his current situation while also thinking of what might happen after he was caught. Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by the voice, "I suppose...since your already getting into that room, that you wouldn't mind bringing me something back?"

'Is he blackmailing me?' Naruto idly thought but decided that it was far better then having this prisoner yell out for the guards and he wasn't going to miss this chance. "What do you want? I don't know exactly whats inside so you'll have to be specific."

Naruto could tell that the man was now smiling. "Two packs of smokes and one of the orange books should do nicely, brat." said the prisoner in the same hushed voice.

"Fine." Naruto said and got back to his previous work on the door. Having so much practice with unlocking his door meant that this would be no problem. It unlocked and Naruto entered. He was unable to turn on the light but his enhanced vision easily pierced the darkness of the room. It was mostly full of shelving units. He couldn't see what was on the tallest shelves because of his height but he could see most of the items. The shelves weren't completely covered but there were a lot of items on some of the shelves. The items seem to have been divided into categories. One shelf was completely covered with small boxes which Naruto recognized as cigarettes and he grabbed two. The adjacent shelf to that one had several match boxes and lighters. He decided to grab a matchbox for the prisoner as well. Naruto passed several shelves with magazines. The majority had scantily clad women on the front but Naruto saw one area that featured men. After scanning several other shelves, Naruto finally saw one with stacks of orange colored books. He grabbed one of these as well. He scanned the remaining shelves which were mostly full of a variety of weapons that prisoners had made but one shelf had several scrolls and Naruto decided to come back later to look at those.

Naruto was careful to exit the room and slipped out smoothly. He locked the door behind him and made his way across the hallway to the cell door. Naruto deposited the items into the cell and he could hear the prisoner start opening the cigarettes and used the matches to light one up. The man inhaled and sighed in content. It was then that the prisoner noticed that Naruto had not yet left.

"Don't worry brat, this is enough for me. I won't taddle on you to the guards." the man said and chuckled slightly, but Naruto was thinking very differently at the moment.

'I should ask some questions seeing as I have this chance and this guy is cooperative.' "Can I ask you some questions?" asked Naruto. The man puffed out more smoke and shrugged, although Naruto really couldn't see as he was crouched next to the cell and not that close to the opening. "Sure I guess. You did go the extra mile and bring me matches too" the man replied with a light chuckle.

Naruto thought for a moment to try and decide how he should phrase what he was about to say. "I noticed some of the prisoners trading jutsu with the guards and I wanted to know if I could do the same since I have access to the confiscation room. Are there any prisoners that you know of who would be willing to trade?" Naruto asked.

The prisoner thought about this and said, "That might be a problem. I know a lot of guys who would be willing to give up all sorts of jutsu for some of the stuff in that room across the hall. However, you don't want to be caught pinching from the room and also it would be difficult to make the trade. You don't work around any of the prisoners to trade during the day and it would be very difficult for you to travel to prisoner cells at night to trade. Some people up there would snitch on you in a second to guards and the prisoners are always keeping an eye out for other prisoners causing trouble. People have tried to get out of their cells before but other prisoners always ratted them out to get better privileges from the guards before they got very far. The guards patrol every three hours but they hear any noise coming from the cell block and respond immediately. I've seen several guys lose their lives for trying to escape because another prisoner started shouted that they were escaping. The guards also regularly check our cells and our persons for any items that could be used to pick the locks. Mostly its the more experienced guards that check and they are pretty good at finding anything."

Naruto's earlier excitement at the situation faltered a little. He really hadn't counted on any of that. He knew it would be difficult to move through the prison because of the guards but apparently the other prisoners might rat you out as well. He would have to really increase his stealth skills to even think about going into the cell block. Now that he knew about the guard shifts though, he could get access to the yard, the equipment room, and storage rooms rather easily as they are not in the cell block but merely connected with it. It wouldn't be that hard for him to gain access to those areas.

Naruto was silent for several minutes in contemplation before he thought of an idea to get the jutsu that he desired. "If you are here in solitary than I can get you whatever you want from the room." Naruto mused out loud. "I have writing materials and you can copy down the jutsu that you know." Naruto finished his train of thought.

The prisoner thought about the boys plan and it did have merit. The guards checked you before going into solitary but not coming out and he knew a bunch of guys that wouldn't mind being in solitary for a day to get back some of the stuff that was taken from them. "That's a good idea brat, it won't take long for guys to start lining up to get into these cells. By the way, my names Kenji." the man said in a friendly tone while still keeping his voice down. "I'm Naruto and not 'brat'". Naruto replied back.

The newly named Kenji thought about the situation and decided that if he was going to be doing business with the brat then he would have to stay alive long enough to be a benefit to him and his buddies. "Listen closely and listen good brat..." Kenji stated in a low serious tone which worried Naruto slightly but also caused him to frown at the 'brat' statement. "...I know exactly who you are and while I have no love for Konoha anymore and the Kyuubi attack didn't affect me in the least, that isn't the same for a lot of the other guys around this joint." Naruto's eyes widened at Kenji's statement and he payed full attention as the man continued. "A couple of guys have been planning to try and get at you since you got here. I think there are even a few who were put here because they tried to come after you in the past while you were still in Konoha." Naruto paled at this statement as he didn't know about any of that. "The reason I have been whispering is because of the other two guys in the cells down the hall." Kenji's eyes darted down the hall (even though he really can't see much out of the small opening in his cell) and Naruto followed his gaze. Naruto remembered that two other prisoners had been put in these cells as well and when he focused on his hearing he found he could hear them both sleeping in cells down the hall.

"The reason those guys are here is because the guards found weapons in their cells. I know one of the guys really doesn't like you and since he has been making weapons I think you can see where I am going with this." at Kenji's revelation, Naruto was now beginning to understand exactly what the man was telling him. There were many prisoners here that really hated him and they were making weapons to possibly kill him with. "So far, none of the prisoners have even seen you but it may only be a matter of time before they start coming after you. They may even try to get at you during the night when you are in your cell." Kenji stated, still in a low and serious voice. Naruto of course was starting to panic. "The best thing you can do right now is to stay in your cell. When you went into the room, did you see any of the confiscated weapons?" Kenji asked and Naruto replied, "Yeah there were a bunch of them."

"I suggest that you go back in there and take at least one of those weapons for your own protection. Even if the guards regularly check down here on their patrols, that still leaves a window of three hours for a prisoner to strike and all you have is a camera in dark hallway full of shadows. It really wouldn't be a problem for someone to get past those. Hell, you seem to have no problem with it and you aren't even a trained ninja." finished Kenji.

"In the mean time, I know some of my buddies would easily get themselves put into solitary for a chance at some of the stuff in the room. I don't really know when the best time to pull off a deal like this would be though. It would be bad news if the guards found stuff missing from the room." said Kenji.

Naruto was torn from his morbid thoughts about nearly an entire prison after his life and had an asnwer to Kenji. "I heard from the guards that every two weeks the shifts change and some of the wardens let their friends take what they want from the room. If your friends got themselves put in solitary right before the shift change then it shouldn't be a problem if stuff was missing. The next shift of guards would think that the previous shift was just taking stuff." Naruto replied but his mind quickly went back to thinking about the prisoners who may be after him.

"Damn brat, you really thought this through. The next shift change is next week. I might be able to have a couple friends in these cells by then."

With a pause from both sides, Naruto realized that the conversation between the two was over. He once again picked the lock of the confiscation room and entered it. Walking to the area with the weapons, and viewed the inventory. Many of the weapons were rather flimsy. Some were just razors that the prisoners might use to shave, others were carved from plastic or made from sharpened rock. Out of the various choices, Naruto found two knives. The first was just a basic kunai and the second was some kind of field knife or combat knife which was small for most people but fit Naruto's hands perfectly.

Naruto was rather afraid now and even while walking back to his cell he started seeing movement in the shadows and noises that were just tricks of his imagination. Naruto hid the knives in his room as best as he could and hoped that the guards did not check his cell very well and wouldn't find them. He was certain that he wouldn't be getting nearly as much sleep as he had before that talk with Kenji but he was thankful that he now knew that someone was after him and he hoped that he could defend himself.

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	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Chapter X: A very long night and a very hard day

x-x

Time skip – twelve months and two weeks since entering prison (so two weeks after the previous chapter

x-x

It had been two weeks since Naruto had been caught breaking into the confiscation room and made his deal with Kenji. A week earlier, Naruto had met with several prisoners at night and brought them items from the room while they copied down jutsu onto unused scrolls supplied by Naruto. The plan had worked without any problems. The prisoners had gotten themselves sent to solitary confinement for starting a fake fight between each other. Seeing as it wasn't that serious, they would only spend a day in solitary and Naruto would be able to deal with them. Scrolls of different jutsu were traded for anything that they wanted from the room, excluding weapons.

After Naruto heard about how there were prisoners who may come after him, he decided it would be better to keep as many weapons as possible out of the cell block. When the next day came and the guard shift changed, no one from the new shift realized that anything was missing from the room. No written inventory of the room was every taken for any item and if someone suspected something, they would probably just think that someone from the previous guard shift had helped themselves.

Naruto was actually surprised at the variety of jutsu that he received. Some were chakra exercises that Naruto had yet to hear of while others were ninjutsu and even a few genjutsu. He really wanted to collect as much as possible and since the men leaving solitary were vary satisfied with their purchases, in two weeks time, Naruto would have more customers or the same customers with more jutsu. The only real problem that Naruto had to worry about was prisoners giving him fake jutsu, which he did think might happen and there was really no way of knowing if they were fake or not. Naruto could not ask any of the guards if the jutsu he had acquired with stolen goods were real or not and he was forced to trust the prisoners. This really didn't give him much confidence because they were prisoners and shinobi prisoners at that. Ninja did not have any honor and were not required to keep their word. Naruto just had to believe that the prisoners who knew Kenji would deliver on what they promised to him. Unfortunately, Naruto would not be able to test the jutsu and other techniques until he was free.

x-x

It was night and Naruto was asleep. He usually didn't try and leave his cell after midnight because he wanted to sleep and he didn't want to make the guards suspicious if he was seen being tired all the time. There was no one in solitary and it wasn't near the time when the guard shift would be changing. Naruto was dreaming and experiencing memories of his mother during her time at school. His mother had just finished wailing on a bunch of idiots that had decided to call her 'tomato' as a nickname to refer to her red hair and round face which they found funny. It made Naruto rather angry. No sooner had his young mother finished beating the idiots then she turned to him in the dream and said, "You need to get up."

That had immediately woken Naruto up from his dreams. His heart was beating rather fast and he found what had just happened rather creepy. Usually he had a certain perspective of both women's memories, like he was actually living them and was there but was slightly detached. He was also aware of what happening everywhere around the person whose memories he was living. He could feel vague impressions of what they were feeling emotionally and how they were thinking but the sensations that they experienced always felt very real to him. This wasn't the same though. Right before he woke up, he thought he was completely detached from the memory and he did not feel anything. 'Was mom speaking to me?' Naruto was thinking. He couldn't understand if that was an actual dreaming or if he was reliving memories. 'Weird.' he thought as nothing like this had ever happened before. He switched positions on his mattress to get comfortable and hopefully fall back to sleep.

Sleep never came however, as Naruto sat up. He had the distinct impression that something was off. He focused on his senses and found something amiss that he may not have consciously noticed before. There was an odd smell coming from the hallway and he could hear a heartbeat and breathing. Both were getting closer. Naruto looked toward the clock and found that it was about half an hour after the last guard patrol. Naruto's eyes widened at the possibilities and now he was fully awake. He went to his hiding place at the end of his mattress and pulled the combat knife out. If his heart was beating fast before, now it threatened to beat out of his chest.

Naruto got up from bed and approached the door while trying not to make a sound. He crouched slightly and peered through the opening in the door that all the solitary confinement cells had. He also focused on his senses and tried to hear and smell what he had before. Naruto was now able to match the sounds and smell to a figure that was approaching his door while sliding smoothly through the shadows. It was a prisoner. Naruto tried to keep from breathing too hard but it was difficult. A prisoner was heading towards his room.

Naruto watched as the man came closer and closer. Naruto approached the right side of the door as silently as he could. This guy had gotten past the other prisoners, and was about to get past the camera. Numerous thoughts went through his mind. 'He's here to kill me? If I yell will the guards hear me and get here in time? Can I yell out?' were some of the thoughts going through his mind. He was paralyzed with fear and found that his voice had left him. He just sat their breathing as his death came closer and closer. The man was nearly to his door when the combat knife slipped out of Naruto's loose and now sweaty hand. It didn't drop to the floor but the point imbedded itself into his foot and Naruto nearly yelped. The pain had brought him back to his senses and he had to do something before this man entered his room and tried to kill him.

x-x

Arata was a new inmate to the prison. He was an orphan from the third ninja war and had managed to become a genin of Konoha. He had taken the chunin exam twice and he and after his teammates had failed both times during the first exam, it was evident that he probably wasn't able to go any farther in his career as a ninja then genin. It wasn't that he didn't have a talent as a shinobi but he didn't have any fancy bloodline or spying skills to speak of which were needed to pass the first exam. He wasn't smart enough to answer the questions and he didn't have a way to cheat from others without easily getting caught. He was now in his twenties and didn't really have much of a future in his opinion. Genin didn't earn very much and while he could get by now, it would get harder as he got older because he didn't have any other skills and genin did not have a retirement plan. Arata had entered the ninja academy with great dreams of going on fabulous missions like nearly every other student that attended the academy. The reality he had found in the decade that he had been a genin was that he was stuck on D-rank missions with an occasional C-rank mission for the rest of his life. He wanted dangerous missions where he could make a name for himself or manage to get a field promotion to chunin. He wanted fame and money but he didn't even manage to fight in the third shinobi war. He was mostly in charge of supply lines and didn't even see any action.

Like many others in Konoha he had hated the Kyuubi brat and thought of him as a demon in human skin. He always knew, along with nearly everyone else, that it was just a matter of time before the Kyuubi returned to harm the village. By bribing one of the civilian council members, he was able to find out where the Kyuubi had been sent and had specifically committed several crimes to get sent to this very prison. As soon as he killed the brat, he would receive all the fame and glory that he believed was due to him. He believed that he would even be let out of prison and declared a hero. So far he had spent a year in this prison and hadn't even seen the Kyuubi once. He had asked around and found an entire group of prisoners were also planning to finish what the Yondaime started. It had taken a while to set up his plan and he had to bribe numerous prisoners to make sure that no one ratted him out before he killed the demon. He also ratted out two of the other prisoners who were planning to kill the demon before him. They both lost the weapons that they had made and spent nearly a week in solitary confinement just thirty or forty feet from the demon and they couldn't do anything.

Now it was Arata's turn and nothing was going to stop him. Luck was on his side as he was imprisoned on a lower level of cells and could easily get to the staircase leading to the 'dungeon'. He managed to get there just moments ago without anybody calling for the guards and slunk down the staircase to finish off the demon. He slowly made it to the end of the hallway where the demon was imprisoned and could already taste his victory. He only needed to unlock the door to the demons cell and finish it off in its sleep. Maybe he would wake it up first to make sure it knew that it was going to die.

He walked up to the door and crouched slightly to pick the lock. He didn't have a very good pick or much in the way of lock picking skills but he could still do it. His anticipation was building with every second at the door while he slowly worked the lock. His knife was in the waist band of his pants. He could already hear the cheers and feel...a sharp stabbing sensation in his abdomen. 'DAMNIT!' Arata nearly screamed grabbed his abdomen in pain. Looking down he barely caught the quickly retreating shadow of thin blade. He'd been stabbed! For the moment he forgot all about the pick that he dropped. The wound was deep, and if his knowledge was right, it was probably fatal. He applied pressure but knew it was only a matter of time. 'THE LITTLE FUCKING DEMON STABBED ME IN THE LIVER!' were the furious thoughts of Arata.

Arata wanted to scream out loud but he did not want to alert the guards. He couldn't believe it. In a few minutes he would be dead. No matter. He would die a martyr and take the demon with him. He ignored the pain, bent down to the opening, and said in a low and dangerous voice, "Your dead you little fucking demon. I'm gonna come in there a gut you, ya little bastard! Then I'll be a hero and..."

Before Arata could finish his sentence or look for his pick, the knife shot out again and buried itself in his throat. Arate was so surprised that he barely realized what had happened. The hand and arm retreated back into the dark room. Arata tried to speak but only managed a gurgling sound. His body crumpled to the ground and he was dead moments later.

x-x

Naruto couldn't believe what had just happened or he didn't want to believe it. He was sitting with his knees hugging his chest and arms around them with his back against the wall by the door. His whole body was shaking. He could hear the last beats of the prisoner's heart 'bump-bump...bump...' and then silence. He had acted and stabbed the man in what he thought was the liver. The man leaned close to the door and started telling Naruto how he was going to kill him and Naruto acted again, stabbing him in the throat. Naruto had promised himself that he wouldn't cry anymore and his eyes were filled with tears that would not fall. His entire chest felt tight and the room felt stifling. The smell of blood hit him and he managed to get up to go to the bathroom. He promptly emptied his stomach in the toilet.

'What was he going to do? Was he a monster now? Did he deserve to be here now? What was he going to do?' were just a few of the louder thoughts running through his head. It didn't matter that he just emptied his stomach because he still felt sick and he just dry-heaved. From his sitting position in the bathroom he looked at the door. He didn't want to go back there. He wanted to stay where he was and forget about everything. He looked down at his foot where the knife had pricked him. There was no longer any wound there but he could still feel a phantom pain. His mind started working again. 'I can't leave a body outside of my door. The guards would ask questions. Questions that I can't answer without telling them everything about getting out of my cell and stealing those knives. I...I have to do something with...the body.' were Naruto's morbid but clear thoughts.

Naruto sat in his bathroom and thought about everything. He had probably two hours until the guards patrolled the cell block and came down to check up on him. The body needed to be moved away from his level and he would have to clean up the blood. He needed to remove the blame from him. No one would believe a suicide but maybe a fight or something. Where would he move the body too? Naruto tried to focus on the task at hand and not on what he had just done or the body on his doorstep. The only parts of the prison he had access to were the hallway he was in, the bottom floor areas closest to the yard, and the yard itself. He knew that the rooms near the yard had cameras in them, at least the equipment room he usually worked in did. There was also a storage room but that might also have a camera. That meant that he would have to get the body to the yard. While he might be able to carry or drag the prisoner there it would leave a trail and it would be almost impossible to get past the camera while carrying a body, but Naruto was always quick to come up with a plan or strategy in a time of need. He knew of one way but he may not be able to do it.

Naruto exited the bathroom and went to his desk. He took out a blank scroll and started making a storage seal. He had made a storage seal before but had never tested it because you needed chakra to test it. Naruto did know quite a bit about seals thanks to his the memories from the Kyuubi about his mother and ancestor and knew that a storage seal required a very small amount of chakra in order to seal what you wanted inside of it. A larger object would require exponentially more chakra. Summoning was a little different.

Once Naruto had finished the storage seal he got his lock pick and moved to the door. He reached through and picked the lock. Naruto was only able to get the door partially open and shoved as hard as he could to get himself through the opening. When he was through he tried not to actually look at the body, which was very difficult so he just tried not to be sick again. Several minutes passed before Naruto could actually finally get over his fears and anxiety. He lifted up the side of the body and slipped the scroll underneath. The corner of the scroll was still exposed and Naruto sat down on his knees. Using all of his concentration, Naruto tried to block out that there was a body in front of him and focus on trying to get his chakra to exit his body. To do this he placed his hands on the exposed part of the scroll and tried to channel enough chakra into it to seal the object placed on top of the seal.

'Please, please work.' Naruto pleaded to himself. He needed to call forth a small amount of chakra in order to activate the seal on the scroll. This was really the only option he had left, unless he wanted to drag the body across the prison. Naruto had yet to push a small amount of chakra outside of his body during his training. There was a definite possibility that this plan would fail.

Nearly thirty minutes went by while Naruto continued to concentrate. He was trying to remain as calm as possible, but the situation was one of panic and desperation. 'Just work. Please work.' were the pleading thoughts running through Naruto's mind.

**(AN: That's as far as I ever got in writing this story. Thank you to those that reviewed and showed interest. I will have to think about continuing the story and if I do, it may be a while between chapters as I already have two other stories.)**


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Inuyasha

AN: Yes I have decided to keep going with this chapter. As of right now I have some planning done for it but it took a while to remember what I originally had planned for the story. The updating may not be that frequent because I have two other stories and they are a priority but I will try to update as best as I can.

Chapter XI: Hiding the evidence

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Continuation of last chapter

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"Come on work, please work." pleaded Naruto to the inanimate scroll as he knelt and concentrated over the dead body. The smell of blood was started to suffuse the entire hallway and he found it impossible to ignore with his sensitive nose.

Prodding his chakra network, he kept trying to access enough chakra to seal the body into the scroll. Naruto could feel his chakra but he had yet to ever bring it out and use it for anything. He only needed a small amount as he knew from his inherited memories how much chakra he would need to seal something the size of a body.

Naruto wasn't sure what would happen if the guards discovered a dead body outside of his door or how he would explain the weapon he had on him. They would likely search his cell and might find jutsu, the other weapon he had, and perhaps other contraband. Technically he was already in solitary confinement so they could only increase his sentence or take away privileges from him but he wasn't willing to risk that. His prison sentence was long enough as it was, it didn't need to be extended and his privileges were the only time he actually got out of the building and into the yard to be outside.

'The body has to go somewhere else, it can't be found here. Forget about everything else.' he thought and tried to push out all his doubts and other concerns at the moment. Taking deep breaths, Naruto continued to do what he was doing. Time passed by, how much time he had no idea, and he prayed that he would still have enough time to do something with the body and blood before the regular guard patrol came by. Naruto didn't give up though and he kept working.

Chakra was produced by the body from physical and mental energy so it was influenced slightly by the mental state of the user. Naruto's panic was enough that the little amount of chakra that he could influence pulled so much against the weakened seals that a small crack formed in the seal on his right shoulder and a bit of chakra was freed for him to use.

The small amount of chakra flowed to his hands and into the scroll which activated the seal. Naruto opened his tightly shut eyes when he felt a slight change in the air of the hallway and a sound. The scroll had worked and the body had disappeared in a plume of smoke.

Naruto stared at scroll and the absence of body for a long moment before he realized that it had worked. He was about celebrate when he realized the situation he was still in and said nothing but gave a sad smile. Picking up the scroll he grimaced as it was mostly covered in blood. While the body had been sealed, a puddle of blood remained in the doorstep of his room.

Naruto faltered as he thought about the situation. 'The area in front of my door is covered in blood...ninja can easily smell blood and anyone that comes by would instantly know something had happened.'

He wracked his brain for an answer. There was a supply room down the hall which would probably have cleaning supplies. Unfortunately, there was so much blood that it would take him a long time to clean up and then he would be left with a large amount of blood towels, or a mop and bucket that were stained with blood. He would just be covering up one incriminating piece of evidence with another. Ninja also didn't steal cleaning supplies so inventory that was missing wouldn't go unnoticed and no one had been injured, at least that he knew of, in a while so there was no way to cover for bloody cleaning supplies.

Naruto stiffened when he heard a noise and turned to the staircase but relaxed a moment later when he realized it was just the stupid brothers snoring again. He sat against the nearby wall and thought about what other options that he had. The only thing he could think of was fuinjutsu as it had helped him with the body. Going over what he knew, Naruto eventually came upon an idea. Nearly every ninja carried storage scrolls but there were variants on the original storage scroll that were specifically made to carry liquids. Primarily it was just water to be used on the battlefield when no water source was available.

Going back inside his room, Naruto looked around to find an empty scroll and then brought out his fuinjutsu set to start making the seal. It was different than a regular storage seal as it needed to pull the liquid into it instead of just sealing a an object. This could be accomplished though and Naruto had the memories from the Kyuubi so he had no problem created the altered storage scroll.

Once he was done, Naruto went back outside his door and placed the scroll face down on the puddle of blood. He attempted to use his chakra again and found that he could still pull a small amount of chakra forth to use. Slowly the puddle of blood disappeared into the scroll until only the scroll was left. He picked it up and noticed that it was just as bloody as the first scroll but ignored it.

Looking at the scrolls, Naruto was at a loss about what to do with them. He knew he couldn't leave them in his room as he would go crazy knowing they were there and that someone could find them or open them. He still didn't know if the guards searched his room. This left few options though as he was still in a prison and with few places to hide the scrolls. They could be destroyed but that would leave a burning smell if he used a candle or, if he tore them up, bloodied and shredded remains of a scroll that he would have to explain if anyone found it. The only other option that he had was to hide them or dispose of them somewhere else. The prison block was not somewhere he wanted to hide something or venture far into, which left only the yard.

'Now comes the hard part.' Naruto thought as he looked down the hallway to the staircase. Thus far, he had never gone past the staircase when he left his cell. He knew exactly what was up there but had never ventured that far during the night. Calming himself down, Naruto kept to the shadows as best as he could and made his way to the staircase.

While sliding along the stone wall, he hurried up the staircase and tried not to make a noticeable shadow. For the first time Naruto stood in the doorway to the solitary confinement staircase during lights-out. He peeked around the doorway to see the darkened cell block. Only the sounds of snoring could be heard and no one seemed to be looking out their cell bars. All the prisons appeared to be sleeping but since they were ninja or had been ninja, it was difficult to tell if they were actually sleeping or not.

Thinking that he had come this far and it would be pointless to not finish it, Naruto stuck to the shadows again and moved silently to passed the the rooms and to the yard. He was as careful as possible as if anyone saw a hint of someone moving in the darkness and they knew that it wasn't from a guard, they might try and turn him in or yell for the guards. He moved with as much haste as possible in the situation as he had to get back to his cell before the guard patrol. There were no doors to the yard and just an open hallway so it wasn't that hard to get from the staircase to the yard. After he was passed where anyone could see him, Naruto left the shadows and walked through the end of the hallway and into the dusty yard.

Oddly enough, the surroundings looked rather they same as they did during the daytime. Looking around, Naruto tried to figure out what he could do with the scroll. He had the idea of burying it but then he would need to get tools and he wasn't about to go back into the prison and break into a room. He could toss them into the mine. Naruto knew it was deep but eventually the scrolls would be found, however the guards might not be able to figure out where they came from and would probably assume they were left by a prisoner that worked in the mine.

That idea had promise but as Naruto scanned over the triangular shaped yard, he saw the mine tailings chute. From the limited information he knew about the mining process that went on in the prison, Naruto had heard that the leftover material after separating the usable chakra metal containing ore was just shoveled into a chute that went out of the prison and directly into the lake of lava that surrounded the prison. Now looking at the opening for that very chute, Naruto saw his opportunity.

Running across most of the yard, Naruto came to the chute and dropped the bloody scrolls into it. They rolled down the chute and went into the lava. Naruto stared down the chute and into the glow of the lava below. 'Is it over?' he thought but pushed aside the thought as it was foolish to think that anything concerning the situation he was in would be over anytime soon. Realizing that he was still on a timetable, Naruto raced back to the entrance to the prison and then slowed down to get back to his staircase.

Naruto stealthily made his way down to the hallway and room that he had come to know as home. While sneaking through the shadowy hallway, Naruto stopped by the supply closet as he had gotten an idea on how to get rid of the smell of blood. While he wouldn't have had time or the ability to clean up the bloody mess earlier, the blood was gone but the smell still lingered.

Most of the cleaning products that ninja used were made to be odorless. Soaps, deodorant, detergent, shampoo, and even household cleaning products were all made that way. Strong scents from clothing or the body didn't help a ninja stay hidden so some products were not only odorless but also helped to eliminate odor.

Pulling out his trusty lock-pick, he broke into the supply room and searched in the darkness for a cleaner that would do both. Once the spritz bottle was found, Naruto grabbed a brush and exited the room. He got back to his room and checked the clock. A fair amount of time had passed but he felt he had enough time to scrub the hallway.

Getting down on his hands and knees outside the door of his room, Naruto began the task of cleaning the hallway. He kept cleaning it and just kept scrubbing the same areas over and over again. It seemed no matter how many times he scrubbed, he wasn't able to get the smell out completely or his nose was just that good at picking up the faint trace of blood. Naruto eventually started spraying the walls with the cleaner as well as a good portion of his door and that end of the hallway. Time passed and Naruto eventually stopped. It wasn't because he was finished but because the guards would patrol the prison soon and he had to stop. He went back down the hall and returned the brush and bottle and then went back to his room.

Naruto was in in his bed, with his door shut and locked, by the time the guard came down to check on him. His senses were heightened and alert while his heart was still beating rapidly. The guard walked down the stairs and then down the hallway and Naruto couldn't help but feel that it was taking forever. The guard stopped at his door and Naruto feared the worst but the ninja peaked in through the slot and then walked back down the hallway to the staircase. Naruto released a breath of air that he didn't even know he was holding.

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Hours had passed since the prisoner's death and Naruto was still in his bead with his eyes open. He wanted to go to sleep and he was tired, but he just couldn't actually fall asleep. Despite having the covers and blanket over him, he still felt quite cold and he couldn't help but shivered during the remainder of the night and morning.

Morning eventually came and Naruto didn't even realize until glancing at his clock that he had been staring at the ceiling of his cell for hours. He heard the morning guard come to his cell with his food but he didn't feel hungry at all. The tray was set on the slot in the door and Naruto ignored if for quite some time before he got up and forced himself to eat something. His reasoning had nothing to do with his stomach but because he always ate his breakfast and if he didn't, then the guards would think something was wrong.

After most of his breakfast was gone, another guard came to take him to an upper level floor where he started sweeping the hallway. It was pointless work but it didn't even bother Naruto that no matter how many passes he made down the hallway with the broom, the floors never got any less dusty. He just kept his head down and worked on the repetitive task. Unfortunately what did bother him was that the task was so dull and easy that it required almost no concentration and his mind kept wandering to what had happened the previous night. Naruto kept thinking about 'what ifs'.

The realization that he had killed someone was still there. He just kept thinking about it and replaying the whole thing over and over in his mind. What if he was caught? What if they found some kind of evidence? What if they evidence linked him in some way? What would the guards do when they found a prisoner missing?

Not much time passed before he heard guards down the hall talking. Apparently they had discovered that a prisoner was missing. No alarm had been sounded though and Naruto listened to the conversation to find out what was going on. His mind kept going through possibilities of him being caught. Killing a prisoner would probably get him more time in this place or they would discover the weapons that he had and he would get his sentence extended. On some level he didn't really care about a punishment as there wasn't really anything else that could be taken away from him since he was already wrongly imprisoned.

"Yeah, it looks like another suicide." said one of the guards to another and Naruto nearly dropped his broom. 'Suicide?' he thought as he focused on listening more attentively.

"You found his body?" questioned a voice.

"No, but there was blood in the rock chute and the last time a prisoner went missing we eventually found that he escaped his cell and then killed himself by going down rock chute into the lava." said another voice and added, "Horrible way to go."

Naruto thought about what they had said and realized that the blood they found was from the blood covered scrolls he had tossed down the chute. He couldn't believe it. The guards thought it was a suicide and relief flooded over him. A moment later, another realization hit him. What had happened was very lucky but that had only made the situation even worse. He had killed someone and then was thrilled at his luck as the death he had caused was now explained by suicide. It sounded terrible the more he thought about how he reacted and it made him feel worse.

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Sitting on his bed, Naruto stared at the wall of his room while in thought. His work was over for the day and he thought about doing something to keep his mind busy and not think about what had happened but he just didn't feel like doing anything. His stomach was upset, as it had been for the whole day, and he felt very tired, despite his usual energy.

Naruto didn't feel like reading any of his books or scrolls, he didn't feel like do any exercises, and he didn't feel like working on trying to break the seals on his shoulders. So fixated was he on the wall, that he never noticed when he was pulled into the seal.

x-x

"**Don't you have something to accomplish?**" inquired a voice and Naruto didn't bother to look around for it. He was rather surprised that he was inside the seal but he had recognized the voice instantly as that of the Kyuubi.

"What do you want?" demanded Naruto as he was in no mood for some kind of game, though he did want to know how he was pulled into the seal without trying. Glancing at the walls and space they were in, Naruto noticed that the area in the seal had changed slightly. The walls looked less dull and it wasn't nearly as dark as before. It had been a while since he had been inside the seal but he wasn't sure why it would change.

"**I want many things, most of which I cannot have. The thing that I want the most right now though, is the one you are neglecting.**" stated the Kyuubi while resting its head on its front legs inside the bars.

Naruto knew that it was speaking about the seals on his shoulders and the deal they had arranged. Before Naruto could reply, the Kyuubi again spoke, "**Did you forget what happened the previous night? You've been working on gaining access to at least some of your chakra and yet when it happens, you just give up?**" questioned the Kyuubi.

"I didn't forget. I...I just didn't want to...and I didn't give up." stated an unsure Naruto.

"**Pathetic. Just because you killed a human you go back on our deal**. **What about your promise**?" goaded the Kyuubi.

"I'm not going back on anything! I can take a day off when I want to. I don't suppose you would understand! You enjoy killing and would kill anyone given the chance!" fired back Naruto.

The Kyuubi merely laughed and stated with a smile, "**Its not like your completely human anymore. What does it matter if you kill one of them**?"

The words struck Naruto as being right but he still didn't want to acknowledge it. Slowly he was changing into something else and the process wasn't something he could fight. By the time he managed to break the seals, he would already be something other than human. The thought still terrified him and he disliked being reminded of it.

"I hate you." was Naruto's only response.

"**I know, I can feel it.**" said the Kyuubi with its smile only widening.

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It was several days before Naruto started working on the seal again. His dreams that contained the memories of his mother and ancestor had stopped during that time but once he started working on the seals again, the dreams resumed.

The amount of chakra that he could now channel was rather insignificant compared to how much was required to perform the most basic of ninjutsu. The only thing he could perform was basic sealing which didn't seem all that helpful until he started thinking about what else he could. Searching through his memories, he looked for anything that could help him.

Working on that thought, Naruto had started adding security to protect him from other intrusions using Fuinjutsu. Every night before going to bed, he would place a tag seal on his door. The tag seal was the size of an explosive note but used to seal the door and keep it from being opened by anyone else but the person who placed the tag. The tag wasn't very strong and could be destroyed or bypassed but since it was on the inside of the door, and the prisoners couldn't use chakra, there was little chance that a prisoner could break through it. If the seal tag did fail, then Naruto would know. In the morning he also had to wake up before the guard came to bring him breakfast and remove the tag.

Naruto also placed seals in front of his door, in the hallway, and on the staircase to his level of the prison that would alert him when someone was near. He managed this during the night with his sealing supplies. The hallway and stairwell were dark enough in areas that no one noticed the black ink seals on the surface of the walls.

Unfortunately it also meant that Naruto was awoken from sleep by these seals on every guard patrol but it was a small price for being safe and making sure he was prepared. He was lucky that he woke up when he did several nights prior, otherwise he may not have noticed that someone was coming down the hallway to kill him and he never would have been able to defend himself.

The guards had all since written off the disappearance of the prisoner as a suicide and Naruto still wasn't sure how he felt about it. He was glad that no one suspected anything but he almost wanted to get caught so that he could tell someone about what he had done and not have to keep it a secret. Walking around with the secret was starting to take its toll on him and he kept remembering what happened. Naruto was thankful that his dreams were filled with the memories as he had been having nightmares about what happened when the Kyuubi had stopped the memory dreams during the few days that Naruto stopped working on breaking the seals.

The only other thing that he had spent time working on were plans to get out of the prison. It seemed that things were becoming more dangerous for him as time went on and he wanted to get out as soon as possible. Naruto knew that he was still several years from getting out though and he still wasn't sure what he would do when he did get out. The only place he had ever known was Konoha and his former home was out of the question. That meant that he needed somewhere else to go or perhaps he would just wander after he got out.

Please Review


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Inuyasha

Chapter XII:

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Time skip – twenty-four months since Naruto entered prison (one year after the previous chapter) Naruto is

current location: Hokage's office

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It just seemed to be one thing after another for the weary Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage of Konoha. He couldn't seem to go six months without something happening which was detrimental to the things that he cared for. Just over two years ago, his adopted grandson had been sent to the Konoha Strict Correctional Facility on three charges of manslaughter. Then about a year and a half ago, Jiraiya had come to talk with him. Apparently his student had been investigating the two merchants that Naruto had killed and found that both were deeply involved in smuggling. His sources had indicated that several shipments of smuggled weapons and ninja supplies went to Konoha.

After an internal investigation it was determined that smuggled items had most likely entered into Konoha but they were no where to be found. They had been disguised as part of large different shipments to different buildings and facilities. According to outside records, far more crates were sent than were received but everything that was ordered was accounted for. This greatly disturbed both men as it was very hard to cover something like that up in a ninja village. Jiraiya was able to find out exactly what weapons and other supplies were being smuggled, which consisted of items that would mostly be used by ANBU. Both men were not able to discover exactly what happened but Hiruzen suspected Danzo and that Root were still operating after he ordered it to be shut down. That also meant that Naruto may not have killed those men but that Danzo had used him as a patsy to cover up smuggling operations and tried to use the trial to acquire Naruto. Although the Hokage was greatly angered by the possibility, had no proof and could not charge Danzo with anything. Jiraiya felt differently and wanted to interrogate the old war-hawk but the Hokage refused as it would violate the law. He couldn't just interrogate citizens of Konoha without any evidence.

Of course the investigation was halted not even a couple of months later when it was brought to his attention that the Uchiha clan were planning a revolt to overthrow him. Despite his best efforts to negotiate, the village elders on the shinobi council took matters into their own hands and ordered Uchiha Itachi to massacre his clan which did not go as they had wanted. Itachi had killed off his clan and left his little brother, emotionally scarred, but alive. He then left the village as a missing-nin. He was furious at the council elders but if he charged them with anything than the whole mess would come out about the planned revolt and that would hurt Konoha even more.

It was only a few months after the massacre that the first attempt on Naruto's life happened. The ninja guards at the prison had stopped it before the man could stab Naruto while the boy was sweeping but another followed a month or so after. That had actually been stopped by the stupid brothers as they had been disturbed from their meal and the younger brother clothes-lined the convict before he could get to the staircase to where Naruto was. The prisoners neck was instantly broken. Sarutobi really didn't care. Unfortunately that was not the last of the attempts and just recently another attempt had occurred while Naruto was working in the yard.

Sarutobi had been informed in reports that boy was very strong for his age and could handle working on the easier mining jobs. There really wasn't much else for Naruto to do in the prison where he could be looked after. Sarutobi had agreed with the reasoning of the prison guards and Naruto started working on the easier jobs of the mining operation when he was just seven and a half years of age. The guards assured him that Naruto would be safe but some of the prisoners had created a distraction for the guards in the mine while another prisoner tried to kill Naruto on the surface. Naruto defended himself and prisoner was killed with a single blow from the tool that the boy was working with. Naruto had made his first kill at just seven and a half. This greatly concerned Sarutobi and he nearly went to the prison himself. He had been unable to find time to visit the boy before because he was so busy with everything else happening in the village. He wished he could be there to console the boy after what happened but the best he could do was send Inoichi to try and help the boy through this. The first kill was always the hardest to get over and Inoichi had reported that the boy was doing as well as could be expected.

Sarutobi still had trouble grasping the fact that the boy was able to due such hard manual labor at his age, but the guards again assured him that the boy was very strong and fast for his age. So much so that some of the guards were actually worried at the boys development and some of the chunins were actually starting to fear him because he was as fast as they were. The guards requested training weights for Naruto's arms and legs, nothing too heavy, but just something to slow the boy down. At the time, nearly a year ago, Sarutobi had approved of the weights but now seeing as the boys life was possibly in danger, he was starting to think Naruto would need that extra speed and strength to keep himself alive. The guards had removed him from working in the yard and Naruto spent his days washing dishes in the kitchen. Naruto would also go back to his old job of maintaining the mining tools when a surplus of tools in need of repair formed.

'Why does Naruto's life have to be so hard? I wish I could be there more for him.' thought the old Hokage as he looked out the windows towards the village in front of him. He had taken a short break from his paperwork and his mind just kept drifting to his adopted grandson. He had done all for Naruto that the law and the village councils would allow, but that was never enough. It seemed that if he took a break from his work to visit the boy, then the whole village might fall apart.

x-x

Naruto had been placed on cleaning duty after the attack and was not allowed in the mine area to work anymore. He had liked the hard manual labor for the two months that he was working there but he also didn't want to get attacked again so he didn't complain while peeling potatoes and washing the dishes. Naruto had talked with Inoichi about his recent attack when the man came to visit him. Since Naruto had already gotten over his first kill, almost a year ago, he got over second much faster and Inoichi said he was dealing with it very well. Naruto never told the man, or anyone else about his first kill. He just wanted to forget about it.

Since Naruto had almost reached his eighth birthday, the changes to himself had become more pronounced. Kyuubi had said that their merging would almost be halfway complete by the time Naruto turned eight. Naruto's fox ears had grown on the top of his head and they were barely three inches tall which mad them easier to hide. Naruto had been worried that his ears might look like the Kyuubi's but they were just normal fox ears, well, as normal as fox ears could be on a young boy. His nearly foot and half long hair was spiked up all directions in the front with two long bangs framing his face. The golden spikes on the top, sides, and back of head pointed slightly backwards making his hair rather streamline as opposed to the front. This served to better hide his slightly pointed human ears and his golden fox ears.

With the hair spiked back, no one could see the ear canals of his new fox ears which were easy to spot without the spike spiky camouflage. With the spiky long bangs in the front, no one could actually see his fox ears while looking at him from the front. His fox ears were covered with the same color of hair/fur meant that they were fully concealed among his golden spikes. He found, with trial and error that this styling of his hair best covered the ears. For some reason his hair actually stayed in that position naturally now. Even when wet his bangs would droop and cling to his head until they dried and returned to the same positions they had been in. His ears were a great advantage and he could hear the prisoners through the solid rock while he was in his room and they were in the cell block. Naruto could also hear anyone coming near him at any time because of the walls and echoes. The Kyuubi's guess about the abilities of his new fox ears had been accurate from what Naruto could tell, but he had yet to test the range as there wasn't much to hear on a lake of lava.

Naruto had changed in other ways as well. His eyes were still blue but the pupil was now a slit. The nails on his hands and his canine teeth were now longer, stronger, and much sharper. The nails, or claws as they could be called now, had stopped growing at a specific length and Naruto wasn't able to cut them at all with a pair of nail trimmers. The best he could do was file them down with one of the files from the equipment room that were meant for use on steel tools but it took far to long to bother with. Naruto didn't bother trying to do anything with his teeth. His time in prison had calmed removed all of his loud outbursts. He was now rather quiet, he hardly spoke to anyone anymore, and he hadn't smiled in over a year so there was no point in trying to hide his long canines.

Naruto's whisker marks had become wider but not by that much (not as wide as when he is using the kyuubi's power). Most of the baby fat on his face was gone as well. His hair had become thicker and also softer but it was far stronger than normal hair. Even a few strands were difficult for him to break and it was probably as strong as metal wire while still being much thinner. Two marks, which resembled his whiskers on his face, had appeared on both of his forearms just above the wrist. These were wider than his whiskers but felt the same when he rubbed them. At first Naruto thought that it was some soot or dirt that he had gotten on his arms but they were permanent and wouldn't rub off. He found out the hard way that these marks, along with the whisker marks on his face, were much more sensitive to touch. After the rubbing Naruto gave the marks on his arms, they were very sore. The Kyuubi said that his facial and arm marks could probably be trained to detect nearby movement or changes in the wind or air pressure. They may also be able to detect approaching weather patterns.

The last changes were the same ones that had been occurring since the beginning of the process. Naruto's body was becoming 'better', for lack of a better term. Naruto noticed that his body felt lighter and more agile. His muscles were stronger than ever, his senses were getting a little sharper, and although Naruto couldn't see it happening, the Kyuubi told him that the body was constantly improving in almost every way. His body was much more resilient to infection than probably anyone else on the planet. It would be difficult to properly poison Naruto because of his healing and the resilient of his body. He could recover from grievous wounds that would kill normal humans but he was no were near invulnerable. It would be very difficult to break any of this bones as and he was physically one of the strongest in the prison. He still had nothing on the legendary stupid brothers but he was stronger than anyone else besides them in the prison. Given enough training and time, the Kyuubi said he could possibly surpass the strength of the stupid brothers.

At first, Naruto was against all of these changes but after the attempts on his life, he was very thankful for them. In the future they may be the only things keeping him alive. Just last week there was an attempt on his life while he was working in the yard. Some prisoners had apparently gotten into a fight in the 'pit' of the mine and the guards were distracted. One prisoner had come up behind Naruto with a makeshift knife and tried to stab him. Naruto's enhanced senses noticed and he reacted quickly to the threat. Naruto struck the man with the sledgehammer he was currently using to break up the rocks from the mine. Once he swung the tool, the prisoner didn't stand a chance. There was a loud crunch and the man was killed instantly. Naruto had the reach advantage with the sledgehammer and despite the prisoner attempting to block the swing with his arm but it really didn't help him any. Naruto had not gotten in trouble but the guards decided to increase his training weight because the were rather afraid at how hard he had hit the prisoner. The guys arm was completely destroyed and his skull was apparently caved in or something. Naruto didn't bother looking at the body in the aftermath of his swing. He knew if was going to be bad and he just looked away. He vividly remembered the first prisoner he had killed the year before, and he did not want to see this one.

It seemed as though the prisoners were getting more bold in there attempts to kill Naruto. This had been the third attempt on his life, that he knew about, in just a single years time. The guards were under the impression that it had been the second attack in several months. Naruto could also tell by the number of prisoners that had helped in the distraction in the latest attempt that there were still more prisoners who would try and come after him. He had memorized the faces of the prisoners who had participated in the distraction and would have to watch out for them. Naruto had even contemplated carrying a weapon around with him at all times.

'I really need to get out of this place.' were the thoughts currently running through Naruto's mind as he sat on his bed in contemplation of what to do next. He was still far away from breaking his chakra seals which were the main hindrance in his plans to escape. Once he could properly use chakra to stick to walls, he would be leaving the prison.

He had decided that it was best to leave the prison when the seals were weakened and then break them later. To break the seals he would need to try to call forth all of his chakra and use it until the seal finally broke. If he did call forth that much chakra, the entire prison would know about it and he would never escape. Therefore he would leave early and find a secluded place to finally break the seal.

Naruto's progress on weakening his chakra seals was still coming along. Through his meditation and constant attempts at using his chakra, he was now able to channel more chakra along his pathways inside his body and channel a small amount of chakra outside his body. It still wasn't enough for any jutsu. Naruto was also starting to try and mold it to do what he wanted. He had ripped off a corner of one of his scrolls and was trying to perform the leaf spinning exercise with it. He had gotten the paper to stand straight up and was able to slowly spin it but this had required all of his focus and concentration to perform. Naruto would attempt using the same technique on different parts of his body in the near future and then try moving on to wall walking in his cell. It would take some time before he could stick to surfaces with the tree climbing exercise and even longer until he was confident that he wouldn't fall and could use it long enough.

The memories he received became more and more helpful to him. His mother had been saved from being kidnapped by Kumo ninja by none other than his father and Naruto thought he witnessed the beginning of something between them which could be love but he wasn't sure. Naruto idly thought his mother was rather beautiful and he liked her hair. In the other memories, Mito-san was learning to be the heiress of the Uzumaki clan, so Naruto ended up learning all of that proper etiquette crap. Naruto had already learned most of the Uzumaki sword and taijutsu styles, he just needed more practice.

Naruto found both the sword and taijutsu styles very easy for him to use and he practiced with every practice sword he had while wearing the weights he had been given. Both women had learned sealing at a young age and Naruto found that the Uzumaki style of sealing was far easier to understand than what he read in the basic sealing scroll he had. The Uzumaki style involved making seals that worked while sacrificing on efficiency. Most sealing was very complex and had to be done just right, but the Uzumaki style was easier because they did not focus on getting everything just right but on what works.

Unfortunately while Naruto did learn how to remove the restricting seals on his shoulders he couldn't as he would need to see the seals and they were on his back so he couldn't unseal them by himself when he couldn't even see or reach them. Naruto already knew how to make most of the well known seals and had even made a chakra restricting seal tag to place on himself in order to fool the guards into thinking his chakra seal was still working, just in case one of them could sense chakra. Naruto just had to place the tag on himself before he left his cell and the guards would never know that the chakra restricting seals which the Hokage placed were weakening. Once the tag was removed, Naruto could continue the ongoing process of weakening the seals. Naruto was eagerly waiting for when the memories talked about the four or five elements seal so that he could eventually remove the seal which prevented him from using the Kyuubi's chakra in case he eventually needed it.

Naruto had acquired a large amount of jutsu from his exchanges with the prisoners. Some of the prisoners weren't actually from Konoha so Naruto had a vast collection. The jutsu ranged from E-rank to B-rank and he was currently negotiating for an A-rank or two. He had a large number of ninjutsu from each of the five elements, genjutsu of every variety, and other techniques that he really couldn't categorize. A prisoner from Suna had given Naruto had a scroll on chakra strings which he was very interested in learning because he saw a lot of uses for that jutsu. One prisoner used to be a samurai from Iron Country and gave Naruto a scroll on chakra flow techniques that the samurai use. Those really caught Naruto's interest and he had asked the former samurai for anything else he had. The man had been happy to comply, especially for everything that Naruto could get him. He wrote Naruto several training scroll and even samurai chakra techniques. Naruto also had the Uzumaki jutsu that he had learned. While his mother wasn't able to use many ninjutsu, a trait that Naruto hoped he did not share, Mito-san did use ninjutsu and was being taught all of the Uzumaki clan ninjutsu. Naruto nearly cried after that memory, now he would have all of his clan jutsu and styles.

The final improvement that Naruto had was in his stealth training. With his new fox ears and the knowledge of the prison that he had gained from talking and trading with prisoners sent to solitary, Naruto was able to explore more of the prison. He was able to sneak into the laundry and kitchen rooms on the bottom floor without alerting any prisoners on the above floors and had gotten a lot of practice hiding in the shadows. He was also fast and skilled enough now to get through his entire hallway within seconds without getting caught by the camera, whereas it used to take him minutes to slowly make his way to the end of the hallway. Building his skills now would become invaluable later when he would try to escape. He had yet to try and get to any of the higher floors in the cell block or guard rooms above the cell block during the night. He wanted to be certain that he was good enough to not get spotted by the prisoners.

x-x

Sitting behind a desk in his family home, Danzo looked over the papers and reports in front of them. All them dealt with the same person, which was Uzumaki Naruto. Years previously, he had unsuccessfully tried to acquire the boy and create the ultimate weapon for the village. Many things had happened since that time.

The Sandaime had yet to visit the container since being sent to prison. He had information concerning Hiruzen sending the boy presents on holidays and a few letter but other than that, the Hokage had done nothing else. He wondered if the Sandaime was distancing himself from the Kyuubi container for political reasons. Perhaps the Hokage was protecting his image as few villagers were happy about the decisions at the trial but since then, the villagers seemed glad that their kage was not visiting the 'demon'. It made sense to him why Hokage was doing it but it didn't make sense for what he knew of Sarutobi Hiruzen. Based on what he knew of his childhood friend, he thought the Hokage would visit the container multiple times a year but this was not the case.

Talk of the Kyuubi and its container had died down considerably since the rioting but Uzumaki Naruto and the Kyuubi were still talked about but it was done discretely and no one talked about it to the younger generation.

Danzo had patiently waited for the Hokage to try and overturn the ruling or to try to make an appeal. Neither of these things had happened though and it left Danzo puzzled. He thought for sure that the Sandaime would start working on looking through all of the evidence to try and get the decision changed. At this point, he was done waiting for Hiruzen to do something.

Through some difficulty, he had acquired copies of the investigation for the case and all of the information that had been gathered from inside the village as well as information that Jiraiya of the Sennin had found outside the village. He had spent time looking through everything present. Unfortunately, when he hatched this plan, he took great care to make sure that things went his way and that the boy was guilty.

The only way to get Uzumaki Naruto out of prison was to find new evidence in the case that would somehow exonerate him or create reasonable doubt. No such evidence existed that wouldn't get himself arrested for treason so he would have to go the opposite route and falsify new evidence. He would have to put it where it would be found by someone or have someone come forward but that wasn't exactly a problem. With the addition of his new eye, he could easily 'persuade' someone to come forth or even plant the evidence and have someone discover it. He could even use his new eye on the arbitrator and ensure that things went his way, this time.

The only problem with the plan was that he wasn't sure what evidence he should create. He also needed someone to take the blame, preferably someone not associated with the village or perhaps a good scapegoat. He would have to convince people that whoever it was, had framed Uzumaki Naruto. He also needed a reason to frame the boy that included the need to kill the three merchants and a reason to use Naruto. All of this had to be done while still keeping any blame or suspicion from himself, which was no easy task.

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AN: I know most people would not be happy with the fox ears but it is more of a phase of his transformation. Like how Inuyasha was a half demon and had dog ears but Sesshomaru was a full demon and had no dog ears. Naruto will likely lose the ears as his transformation progresses.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Inuyasha

AN: I apologize for taking so long but my other two stories have been taking the majority of my writing time.

Chapter XIII: Converging plans

x-x

Twenty-six months since Naruto entered prison (two months from the last chapter) Naruto is just over eight years old

x-x

Sliding down the wall again, Naruto managed to land on his feet. Sighing, he gave himself a little space and charged again at the wall in the darkness. He ran partly up the concrete wall of the cell before he couldn't stick to the surface anymore and he slid down again. This time however, he couldn't land correctly and ended up falling on his back.

Grunting in pain, Naruto sat for a moment before a nagging voice filled his head, "**Get back up and try again.**" the Kyuubi stated and Naruto nodded while getting to his feet and preparing to try to run back up the wall again.

It had been about a month since discovering that the fox could now talk with him all the time and not just when he went into the seal. The Kyuubi wasn't actually sure how it was happening as the seal itself was still as strong as ever but for some reason he now had a channel of communication with his host.

The problem that he was currently having with his training was both with the seals and his chakra. The tree walking exercise worked on all hard surfaces and didn't require much chakra but the seals kept restricting the amount that he could use. They were still breaking but it was a struggled for him to pull the required amount of chakra and took much more focus than the normal technique required.

The result was that the exercise would take several times longer and be much more frustrating than what he recalled from the memories of his mother and ancestor. He kept at it though and was now working on it for hours each day, and forgoing sleep in order to work for extra hours during the night. At the rate he was progressing, it would likely take another week or so before he could properly stick to the walls. By that point, he might be able to get out of the prison.

His plan for escaping revolved completely around using the tree walking exercise to escape. Every week, the prison received a shipment of supplies and every two weeks the guards rotated. These were the only times when the draw bridge connected the prison to the tower on the other side of the lava lake. The best time for the guard rotation was when the prisoners were locked up and the best time for the supplies deliver was when the prisoners were out working in the yard. It was staggered this way because the supplies could be delivered without the prisoners causing any problems and the guard shifts could be changed when the prisoners were secured in their cell.

He determined, that the best time to escape was during the guard change because the root he was taking to escape was through the yard and he couldn't risk being seen by working prisoners or the guards. This choice also came with a lot of risk as he could be felt by the guards as he passed underneath them on the drawbridge while running in the opposite direction they were headed. He did have an advantage because the landscape was darkened due to the constant cloud cover that blocked out the sun, the glowing lava did take away some of that advantage though.

The next guard shift change was in a little more than a week and would occur sometime during the morning hours. He was never sure when because he wasn't willing to risk getting caught out of his cell to find out the exact time that the new shift entered and the old shift left. On that day, the patrols were very lax because the current shift would be leaving so he would not be discovered out of his cell until someone came down to give him breakfast. If he didn't complete the chakra exercise within the given time period, he would have to wait another two weeks.

The attempts on his life were escalating in frequency and in how close they were coming to doing him physical harm. He had a few bandages on his arm from where a prisoner had tried kill him with a thrown weapon. That was less than a week ago and another attack was soon to follow. The only reason that he wasn't attacked with the knife and it was thrown, was due to the fact that he tried to be around the stupid brothers as much as possible while he was in the mine and no one messed with them, not even the guards.

He learned from that attack that he couldn't trust the guards at all because right when it happened, the guards watching the mine were looking the other way or not where they were supposed to be. In fact, he was currently in solitary confinement because he had been 'caught' with a weapon when the guards returned to find him injured and with a knife in his hands. The guards claimed that the weapon was his and he was planning to use it so he was stuck in solitary for another few days.

It wasn't a problem though as it gave him plenty of time to work on the tree walking exercise since he had nothing left to do. This wasn't actually the first time he had been put in solitary confinement and it also wasn't the first time he suspected some of the guards of indirectly trying to get him injured or killed.

The first time it happened, which was a month ago. He had been attacked while working in the mine and was forced to kill two prisoners while the guards were nowhere in sight. After that he had become paranoid of the fact that some guards were now either not going to help him or completely against him. He had started putting storage seals on his body where they couldn't be seen and then sealing all of his belongings into them. He had seals all over his thighs and upper arms where his clothing hid them and they were full of his jutsu and many different weapons that he had stolen.

He didn't want to give the guards a reason to put him in solitary or have them search his room and find as well as take all of the contraband that he had acquired in his time in the prison. Being stuck in the confinement cell that was in perfect view of the camera meant he would not be able to escape at a later date. The stupidest part was that his cell was really no different from solitary confinement, considering how much time he spent training in the past few weeks. However, while trying to stick it to him as much as possible, it was possible that the guards that were against him would unknowingly hinder his chance to escape.

He couldn't stay away from a fight that had been arranged by the prisoners and some of the guards. The worst guard shift was the one that would be coming in the next week and he would be thankful if he managed to leave the prison right before their shift started. Or better yet, he would be happy to escape the prison right when they went on duty.

His thoughts strayed to something else that had been bothering him recently as he ran up the wall again. It had been over two years since he had entered the prison and no one had visited him. Of the four people that he had some connection to, none of them had ever visited him. He'd only ever received letters from the Sandaime and they had become so infrequent that he only gotten one on his birthday in the past year.

The only person he did get a visit from was a man named Yamanaka Inoichi who apparently came to make sure he was dealing with the fact that he had killed a prisoner. That had been a while ago and the kill he talked about with the man hadn't actually been his first, but his second. They hadn't talked about anything else and no matter how kind the man had seemed, he didn't trust him at all.

It was disappointing that he was so easily forgotten by those that helped him but he realized that they likely didn't go with him because they wanted to. The more he thought about it, the more obvious it became that Kakashi, Itachi, and Gai only went with him because it was a mission and that was what they had to do. They tried to make the journey easier on him and help him accept his situation, but once their mission was over, they didn't care anymore.

Frowning at the thought, he rushed back at the wall.

x-x

The following day

x-x

Standing in his confinement cell and once again trying to climb the wall, Naruto stopped as his ears picked up the sound of guards coming. He waited quite a while before the guards showed up and they put a prisoner into the confinement cell next to his.

Frowning, he realized that he wouldn't be able to continue working for the afternoon as the prisoner might figure out he was doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing. The prisoner was put in the cell and then the door was shut and locked.

Naruto listened to the guards walk down the hall and up the staircase and then focused on the cell next to his. It was possible that whoever was next to him was out to get him or that the guards had planned something. He didn't hear any movement coming from the cell which wasn't necessarily a good or bad sign. The person could be waiting until later to do something.

A long silence elapsed before the the man's whisper filled the hallway. "Hey, Naruto." said the man and Naruto recognized the voice as that of Kenji, the man who first helped him.

"I'm in the cell next to you." answered Naruto and the man chuckled and asked, "You still in there for something you didn't do?"

"Pretty much. I get out later this afternoon." said Naruto. Kenji most likely just wanted some contraband from the room but there was nothing he could do while in his current cell as someone might see the door open on the camera because one of the lights along the hallway was right near his cell door. He'd have to wait until he was released back to his room before he could do anything.

"Well I actually wasn't here for myself. There's this prisoner up in the infirmary who won't likely last a couple more days. He's been sick off and on for a while and one of the oldest prisoners here. The medic-nin in the prison told him he won't last much longer and they let a couple of us see him one last time. He wants some stuff from the room and said he was willing to trade something important for it but you have to come to him." stated Kenji in a concerned voice and Naruto thought about it.

He knew where the infirmary was from his many sweeping assignments. It was on one of the highest floors in the prison. What Kenji was really asking him was to somehow sneak past the prison block, the guard station and barracks, and into the infirmary without getting caught after lights-out. It was an exceedingly difficult task as he had never tried to sneak past the prisoners in the cell block. The most he had done was go out into the yard.

"What exactly did he want and did he tell you anything else about what he was willing to trade?" Naruto asked. Even though the task seemed impossible, he was still curious about the situation. A man on his deathbed was more likely to reveal something important. His mind was filled with notions of forbidden jutsu or secret clan techniques and other things along those lines that a dying man might be willing to trade.

"Well he pretty much wanted the usual Icha Icha and a few other things. As for what exactly he wanted to trade, I don't really know. Nobody even knows why he is in this place or what he was brought here for." replied Kenji and it just made Naruto even more curious.

"I'll have to think about it." said Naruto and sat in his cell and thought about how exactly he might get to the infirmary without getting caught.

x-x

Konoha, Root Headquarters

x-x

Watching over the procedure, Danzo waited for its completion. It was no easy task what Fu was doing and it required time as well as great control. His plans had been put into motion and after some searching, his men had found the patsy he wanted. The chunin's name was Mizuki and he had no family, only one or two people he was even close to in the village and his record had several inconsistencies in his mission. The man also hated Uzumaki Naruto, but kept it hidden from most of the village. The hatred also had no real basis. Most people in the village hate the Kyuubi container because they lost family or friends when the Kyuubi had attacked the village but no real reason could be found for Mizuki's hatred. The man hadn't lost anyone close to him, was an orphan, and Uzumaki Naruto had never caused any trouble for him. It seemed that the man just hated the container because everyone else did. The man also seemed to have the desire for glory and power which could be easily played upon as well.

This was the third candidate that they had looked into during the selection process. The process involved scanning records for a ninja that wouldn't necessarily be missed and served no real purpose in the forces of Konoha. He had wanted someone expendable and of the many candidates that fit his criteria, it was narrowed down to three. Of the three, the first two had already been drugged and had their minds walked through by Fu. It was determined that they were not good candidates because while they disliked the Kyuubi container, their anger wasn't strong enough to explain what Danzo had planned. They were also loyal to the village and didn't have the right mindset. He needed someone like Mizuki who had irrational anger and with some delusions of grandeur that could be used and was easy to manipulate. From what Fu could tell, it would only be a while before Mizuki tried to do something to get the power and glory that the man felt he deserved and might be willing to do anything to get it. This was perfect for the role the man would be playing. The man didn't care for other ninja of the village or teamwork believed everyone in the village was holding him back or ignoring him.

Mizuki was the best candidate of the three and Fu's initial mind walked proved very successful. The chunin's memories and disposition showed that he was easily influenced by others and could be readily manipulated. The man was currently sitting before him, still heavily sedating, in a chair next to one of his Root ANBU. That particular Root ninja was the one that had been ordered to frame the container in his failed plan and had killed the three greedy merchants. Now, the memories from that ninja were being copied and placed in Mizuki's mind.

By the time Fu and his own technique with his sharingan were performed on the chunin, Mizuki would literally think that he had been the one to frame Uzumaki Naruto for murder. There would be some holes in the memories, however, as Mizuki had never actually met with any of the three men he would remember murdering but by using his sharingan he could implant several ideas into the man's head and enrage him enough to complete the desired task. With the rage he would induce, the man would never even think that his own memories would be fake or really delve too deeply into his own motivations and ignore everything else in favor of completely the task implanted into his mind.

The inconsistencies in Mizuki's missions could be used to make it seem like Mizuki had been helping the three merchants smuggle all sorts of contraband into Konoha and into Fire Country itself. A paper trail could be left that lead right to Mizuki. With the false memories, combined with the mind control abilities of his sharingan and paper trail, he was confident that by the end of the day Mizuki would believe that he had killed those three men and framed Uzumaki Naruto. It was a nearly perfect plan.

When the initial phase of the plan was finished, Mizuki would completely believe that he had been solely responsible for the framing of the container.

His Root ninja had already applied on Mizuki's behalf for a shift at the Konoha Strict Correctional Facility and a few of the ninja on that shift were already working for him. Mizuki would find out once he was released and had woken up the next morning that he was being assigned to the prison. The chunin would praise his own luck and move forward with the plans implanted into his head.

The Sandaime had been getting lax in the selection process as not that many trusted ninja wanted to be on duty at the prison. Once the prison shift changed in the next week, Mizuki would follow his 'conditioning' and attack Uzumaki Naruto. A Root ANBU had infiltrated the shift as well and would be there to stop Mizuki before the man killed the container, but things would fall into place after that.

Mizuki would be taken back to Konoha for interrogation and questioning. The man would easily break under interrogation and spill everything. The man would be so proud of himself and what he 'knew' that he had done. Even if a mind walk by a Yamanka was done, the modifications to the man's memories of the night of the incident would hold up under scrutiny and the paper trail would only further incriminate the chunin. It was very unlikely that a mind-walk would delve any deeper than to find out if Mizuki did frame the boy. The Sandaime would be so thrilled at the evidence that the interrogators wouldn't look any deeper. Why bother when the evidence was all there?

All the blame will be piled onto Mizuki and away from himself and the possibility that his organization was still active. He wasn't foolish to think that Hiruzun hadn't suspected him of something but there would nothing that the Sandaime could do with the real culprit that confessed and believed he had done everything.

Mizuki would likely claim that getting into the prison was to finish the job, as the man believed that the container should have been executed and not sent to prison in the first place. There was nearly a whole village of people who felt the same way and it wouldn't be hard to believe.

Once the truth was revealed, it would shock the villagers and ninja, who all had believed that the container was guilty. The Hokage would release the boy from prison, but his plan wouldn't stop there. He now knew what the reactions of the villagers would be as he had been wrong before about just how strongly they would react. The release of the 'demon' would start a chain reaction in the village. Panic would likely set in as even if the boy wasn't guilty, no one would want him back in the village or to go to the ninja academy.

To deal with the village's outcry he would suggest that the arbitrator that decided the original case would likely be brought in to find a suitable arrangement to where the boy would be staying. Sarutobi was unlikely to refuse such a request. He planned to use his sharingan on the arbitrator before anything was decided and get the decision that he wanted. The civilians and perhaps even the ninja council would support him.

The civilians wanted nothing to do with the boy and would support any decision that kept the boy out of the village or made sure that they didn't have to see him or be near him. Hiruzen would likely want to put the boy into the academy to become a ninja. However, most of the ninja counselors had children in the academy and they would have predictable reactions, even if the boy was innocent of all charges. The possibility of letting a former prisoner in the same class or even the same academy building as their children would make them look for another option. He would then step in and provide the same speech that he had originally planned over two years ago and the arbitrator would agree with him.

This time everything would go the way it should have gone. The boy would become his weapon and Hiruzen would be helpless to stop him.

x-x

Naruto spent most of his remaining time in the cell thinking about how to get to the infirmary. Going through the cell block was incredibly risky given that he had never tried it before. The prisoners would tell on him in an instant and he would be captured by the alerted guards before he even made it past the cell block levels.

This problem forced him to look for an alternative route. He still had access to the yard and was learning to wall walk. He may not have the technique down but was certain that he could at least climb up the side of the building.

The building was very traditional in design and had many overhangs and other features that would make it easier to climb. The cell block didn't have any windows and once he was over that level, he just had to climb the rest of the building and get to the infirmary. The windows above the cell block were not barred and didn't have any glass. They were mostly just slits in the wall and given his size, he could fit through them.

The only thing he didn't know was whether the infirmary had a window. He had only seen the door to the room and peeked into it as he passed while sweeping the floor. He couldn't remember a window being inside.

If there wasn't a window inside the room, he would have to go for another window that was near the room he wanted. With that plan in mind, he waited until he was released from solitary and then until lights-out before making his move. His mind was filled with different thoughts about what the old man might tell him.

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	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Inuyasha

AN: this took so much longer than I planned because I kept changing my mind but this chapter is much longer than the others have been so enjoy.

Chapter XIV: escape

x-x

Several hours after the last chapter

x-x

Getting out of the yard wasn't very difficult. He had done it several times before and was very confident in his ability to make it out there without getting caught. The hard part however was climbing the building.

He managed, with a running start, to get up the side of the building using the tree walking exercise, that he was still learning, and grab the first overhang. After pulling himself onto the roof tiles he moved across the roof as quietly as he could to the next overhang, which was on the cell block area. He managed to get onto the next overhand as well but getting to the third roof was much more difficult as he didn't have a lot of space to get the same running start. He was no standing on just the overhang and only had a couple of feet to move.

Two and a half hours was the maximum amount of time he could spend climbing the building before he had to get back to his room due to the guard patrols. Unfortunately he forgot the fact that he didn't have a watch or any other way to tell time as he scaled the building.

He tried and fell back down to the hard roofing tiles several times. This was where he currently was, still trying to get to the third roof as more timed passed on. He also had to get up onto the fourth roof in order to get into the higher levels of the prison and reach the infirmary. He couldn't keep wasting time on this level when there was so much more to get through.

Trying to run back up the wall again, he nearly made it to the overhand and his hand just missed grabbing it before his feet gave way and he dropped back down to the overhang below. Instinctively his hand reached out to try and help him stop his fall. Something else happened though and he abruptly stopped falling. His feet were dangling about two feet off the roof tiles of the overhang and he looked up to his hand to see that his nails were firmly imbedded into the rock wall.

Raising a confused eyebrow, he looked to the claw-like nails on his other hand and tried to scratch the wall with them. The rock wall easily gave way to his nails and it seemed like the rock was far softer than he would have ever imagined. It was almost like he was burning part of it away as his nails entered the material and he could get a good grip on the wall with just his nails. Using his free hand he stabbed his finger nails in the rock and started scaling the wall with just his hands.

He reached the overhang and pulled himself up with ease and then stared at his nails. 'I had no idea they were this cool.' he thought as he flexed his hands and further examined his now deemed 'useful' claws. Coming back to the task at hand, he went to the next wall and climbed it the same way. He didn't even need his feet as his upper body strength was more than enough to climb and pull himself up.

Coming to the upper levels of the prison, he quickly moved to the wall and got out of the way as these levels had slits in the walls that served as windows. Moving to a nearby slit, he peeked in and saw a storage room. He could have climbed another story but that was where the guards rooms were and he decided it was better to go in on this floor and then take the stairs to the next level. It was possible that he could alert the sleeping guards and the guards that may still be awake if he proceeded to climb any farther.

Getting one arm through the skinny slit that was a window for the building, he squeezed the rest of himself through. His feet touched the floor as light as possible and he made his way to the door of the room. Before touching the handle, he closed his eyes and listened.

His ears picked up several sounds. The slight wind from outside that buffeted the building and whistled through the windows was the most prevalent sound but he could pick up voices from the floor above him which he had only rarely ever been to. Calming himself, he turned the handle to the door and then opened it slightly, he looked down the empty hallway and then opened the door enough to get his head out and see the entire hallway.

There was nothing there, which was what his ears told him but he was being overly cautious. He waited a few moment to ensure no one was coming and then moved out from the doorway. The staircase was just down the hall and that would take him to the next level where the infirmary was. There was at least one camera that monitored the staircase so he moved with care and kept to the shadows.

Making his way to the stairs, he found the camera and then went up the staircase in the best way he could to avoid being seen. This was by far the closest he had ever dared to venture when he was moving at night. He could be caught at any moment.

His head peaked above the floor as he reached the top quarter of the steps and he looked through the metal rails to view the new hallway. He knew with his ears it was empty but their were people in the rooms along this hallway. He could tell at least four people were awake and from the commotion they were making, they were likely playing cards and waiting to make their rounds, then they would switch with the next night shift.

Coming off the stairs, he moved as silently as he could down the hallway and looked for the correct room which had a red cross on it.

He moved past a few doors before he stopped and backed up. The room he was looking at had always had the door closed and he had never been able to see into it.

There were no lights on but his eyes could pierce the darkness and discern what was in it. The far side of the room had one wall that was covered with monitors, a desk, and then a single chair. It took him a moment to realize what he was really looking at and he wanted curse out loud.

The room was the security monitoring room for the whole prison. It had monitors for every camera in the whole building...and they were all turned off.

He put his fist to his mouth and bit his index keep himself from screaming.

All that time he spent trying to sneak around and maneuver himself so he wasn't caught on camera and the cameras weren't even on! No one was dutifully watching them and looking for escapees or possible security problems.

'God damn it! How many other prisoners knew the cameras didn't work? Did Kenji know?' he wondered and tried to calm himself down. It seemed he had wasted so much time and worked so hard to sneak around, all for nothing.

It was at that moment that his ears picked up movement and the handle of a door down the hallway started to turn.

x-x

A guard came out of the break room and looked both ways down the hall. He had just been playing poker with a few of the other guards currently on duty when he swore he heard a growl like that of an animal.

Walking down the hallway, his eyes shifted back and forth between the doors, he glanced at the security room and then walked over to it. Standing in the doorway, he leaned in and took a look around.

There was no one there and nothing out of place.

Satisfied that nothing was amiss, the guard when back to the break room and shut the door.

x-x

No sooner had the door shut than Naruto started breathing again inside the broom closet he was in.. He had raced into the nearby room on the other side of the hallway but this hadn't been the best of choices.

Once he was in the closet, everything had started falling on him. He was holding up two brooms and a mop with his arms and leg. His other foot was stepping in the water of the mop bucket and the handle of a bottle of cleaner that had fallen off the shelf above him was firmly held in his teeth . He had been holding himself perfectly still the entire time the guard was in the hallway while his heart was beating like mad.

Trying to put the brooms back in place, he managed to step out of the mop bucket and open the door. As quietly as possible, he shut the door and continued on his way to the infirmary.

He passed several other doors before he finally reached the room he was after. He could hear snores coming from the rooms as well as the awake ninja playing cards and wondered if it would be worth it. He was going well out of his way for a person that he really didn't know and without knowing what he would be getting in return.

Moving to the door, he silently opened it and moved into the dimly lit room.

The infirmary only had about six beds in it and only one was occupied. The privacy curtain was shut so he he walked over to it. There were no escape routes that he could see which did not involve the door he just came through. Should anything happen or somehow it was a trap, then he would not be able to do anything before guards came streaming in through the only entrance/exit. He did trust Kenji though.

Coming to curtain he gently slid it open and saw an old man sitting on the bed. His hair was pure white and his face was tanned and wrinkled slightly with age. The man apparently heard him as he had one eye open and was examining the person that was disturbing his sleep.

The man examined Naruto with his eye before he deemed the boy a threat and opened the other one to get a better look.

A moment of silence elapsed before the man spoke first, "Did you bring the stuff?" he questioned in a very expectant voice.

Naruto frowned slightly and reached to the back waistband of his pants where the materials he brought were placed to keep his hands free. He didn't want to seal them into anything as this would alert the prisoner to the fact that he could use his chakra.

He pulled the adult material and then handed it to the old prisoner who didn't move off the bed.

"Ohoho...lets see what you brought." said the old man in a low voice and he skimmed through the adult magazine and examined a few of the foldouts in it.

"Very nice." the man said as he was completely distracted by the material in front of him. He starting coughing a moment later but it was only brief coughing fit.

Getting annoyed, Naruto cleared his throat to get the man's attention so they could finish the transaction and he could get what he came all that way for, which he was still in the dark about.

Glancing away from the porn, he noted the impatient boy and remembered Kenji's plan.

Sighing he managed to pull himself up slightly on the pillows he was resting on in order to better see the boy that was looking at him. It didn't take long and Naruto thought about helping him but decided against it as the man didn't seem to want his help.

Motioning to a nearby chair, Naruto went and got it and then sat down in it next to the bed.

"Well I don't really have anything worthwhile to offer you. I'm an old man and I've been in this prison longer than I've been outside of it. I've never had many jutsu and you probably wouldn't be interested in the ones that I do have, but I do have something. Mostly its just a story but also something else. Are you interested?" he questioned despite the fact that he had already been given his end of the deal.

Naruto thought about it for a brief moment. He risked capture or discovery and had come all this way so he could get a story in return? It seemed a disappointment, however no one had ever told him a story before. No one had ever read him a book at bedtime like he discovered other children were privileged with. So, being told an interesting story might not make his entire journey worthless.

"Alright." responded Naruto and he sat back in the chair with his feet dangling over the seat and not touching the floor.

The man nodded and began, "Well, years ago I was an Iwa nin. I took part in the First Shinobi War as a chunin. To try and gain an advantage over our enemies, which were Suna and Konoha, we tried everything we could. One of the Kamizuru clan members asked the Tsuchikage at the time, which was Mu, to send out a team of ninja to try and find the forbidden techniques of the First Tsuchikage.

The First Tsuchikage was a member of the Kamizuru clan and they used bees in their jutsu. Before he died, he hid a secret scroll full of forbidden techniques for bug user in an unknown location. He apparently didn't want any of his clan to use the jutsu for whatever reason but that was years before the onset of the war. Clan members searched for quite some time for any information on where it could have been hidden but it wasn't until that point that one of the members had discovered a detailed map to a location in Earth Country." said the prisoner who Naruto had never actually exchanged names with.

The man looked over at Naruto and noticed that he boy was giving him his full attention and hanging on his every word. He smirked slightly and then continued, "It was determined that the map had been drawn by the First Tsuchikage and so the Second Tsuchikage agreed to see where the map led as it could be of great help to the war effort. A secret mission was issued and a team put together that few, if any besides the Tsuchikage, knew about. At least two members of the Kamizuru clan went along with a few jonin and chunin with myself as one of those members. The map was very detailed but didn't give any specifics about where the area it showed was located.

It was as if someone zoomed in on a specific area of a map of the elemental countries. It was very difficult to determine where the area in question was or determine any points of reference as there were few and only drawn on the map and not named. It took at least two weeks for a group of mapmakers in Earth Country to even determine that the location the map was showing was in Earth Country. They were only able to identify one point on the map, which was a single abandoned temple on one mountain of the many mountain ranges in Earth Country. The temple and mountain it was on were actually the starting point for the map.

If they hadn't been able to figure it out based on a very old map that they had, then no one would have been able to determine where the location was that the map showed. Earth Country alone has hundreds of mountains and probably many lost temples. Few maps ever listed temples as they were of little importance to most people, especially ninja. Only the Rock Temple near the capital of Earth Country was well known and considered important.

After getting everything ready for the journey we set off for the temple, which was called Idaina Yamadera. It took quite a while to get there because of the rough terrain. We spent nearly three weeks just getting to the mountain temple and traveled into the northern area of Earth Country, which few ever visited. Once there, we tried to continue along the course listed on the map as best as we could. No one actually knew what we would find at the end of the journey as nothing was indicated on the map or in the rest of the scroll the map was written on, but everyone believed it would be those scrolls and that we would be doing a great service to the village.

We started making our way across a practically untraveled part of the Earth Country. We had to search for the pictured locations indicated on the map. They were each just a picture of a physical feature along the indicated route. There was no road or path so we had to spread out and search for the indicated pictures when we thought we might be getting near.

It took a while to find all the landmarks along the way and make sure we were headed in approximately the right direction. The closer we traveled, the more excited we got. Thoughts of hidden treasure and stores of other jutsu filled the heads of many members of the party. We wanted to find something incredible to make the arduous trip worth it and to help Iwa with the war.

The farther we traveled, the more dangerous it became. We started running into huge animals and predators that were extremely rare in the more populated areas of the Elemental countries. However that is what happens the farther west you go. Those animals wanted nothing more than to make a meal out of us. Even the forests and mountains got bigger but we didn't let the danger sway us from our approaching goal.

As we neared the end of the map, several members of the group started hearing a noise but thought it could have just been part of the surrounding forest of the valley we were traveling in. The noise got louder though and soon everyone could hear it. We first thought it was a waterfall, but the closer we got to it, the more the sound changed.

We started passing the bones of large animals that were laying on the ground and that should have been a good warning for us but we wanted to continue. Soon the only sound we could hear was the buzzing of something up ahead. It drowned out everything else, or it was just the only thing making any sound in the area.

Eventually we came upon what was producing the noise. It was a huge hive that was in a cave inside of a canyon. The cave and canyon were marked on the very end of the map, so it was our final destination but that wasn't what he had on our minds at the time. Several members of the group originally thought they were bees but the members of the Kamizuru clan corrected them, they were actually wasps.

Why exactly the cave was crawling with nearly half meter long wasps was anyone's guess. The Kamizuru clan was known for their bees and not wasps. No one in the clan had ever used wasps. Everyone was confused by this turn of events.

The wasps seemed to stay to the cave but many would leave and head in certain direction, and they probably returned as well but it was too difficult to try and tell them apart. We were cautious as there were just so many of them and they looked quiet deadly. We were told by the bee experts in the group that the sting of a wasp that size would certainly be fatal.

Perhaps the First Tsuchikage had a method to get around them or could use his own bees to communicate with them and this was what the two Kamizuru clansmen thought but they were wrong. So terribly wrong." the prisoner said with an empty look on his face as he stared across the room at the wall.

So far Naruto was very interested in the story and he definitely wanted to hear more so he waited for the old man to continue.

"They sent in some of their bees but they couldn't communicate at all with the much larger wasps. Eventually the wasps got agitated enough that they killed the bees and then went back their business which was taking care of the hive. We spent nearly a day debating what to do with the hive as we were all sure that something must lay behind the hive and further in the cave. That may not have actually been the case but that was what we all thought.

It was decided that we should try and sneak into the cave without disturbing the wasps. One person in our party was a high ranking jonin and knew how to turn himself invisible which was an A-rank technique of the village. He volunteered to sneak in and explore the cave to see if there was anything else in it.

Everything started out fine but we never saw or heard from him again. After two days had passed we decided that he must have been killed or was somehow trapped. The next person to try and get into the cave knew an earth technique that would allow him to move through the rocks and volunteered to go in. We thought this was more dangerous than the invisibility techniques as you needed to move out of the rocks in order to see what was inside the cave and thereby expose yourself to the wasps.

However, we still wanted the scrolls and anything else there was inside the cave so we were willing to take the risk. Thinking back, I'm not sure at that point if we still were trying to get the scrolls for the village's sake or just to gain the recognition of having found them and whatever else was inside the cave.

I can't remember that ninja's name but he was a one of the two members of the Kamizuru clan that came with us. He melted into the ground and moved to the cave. After another two days passed, we decided that he must have been killed as well. None of his bees ever made it out either.

At that point we were running out of options. Do we leave and head back with nothing or do we keep trying? With the loss of two members of the group we should have thought things out and been more cautious but we wanted what we still believed was in the cave, so we attacked.

We used every jutsu that we had. Fire jutsu seemed to work better than anything else but it also attracted more of them to the heat and light. Unfortunately most of us were Earth jutsu users and our jutsu didn't work well at all. The wasps could all fly, were incredibly fast, and were quite agile.

Despite all we had at our disposal and even the larger bee summons of the remaining Kamizuru member, we were pushed back. The wasps swarmed several of the ninja there and they were killed in moments. After that happened, we ran. It seemed like the only thing we could do and being a chunin I didn't have many jutsu to fight back with and only had an assortment of weapons and ninja tools to use.

We ran and kept running for the entire night but they just kept following us. They never quit or took a break and no matter how far we went or how much we tried to evade them, they merely found us again and attacked. Our numbers dropped throughout that night and by morning there were only three of us left that hadn't been stung or killed outright. They just kept chasing us without end. I think a couple of days passed after that and by that time we had no idea where we were.

You'd think they would give up when the threat had left but they didn't. They were determined to kill us no matter what, even if it meant their own deaths. Those damn saimyosho (hell wasps).

Nearing the end of our ability to fight back, it was only luck that managed to save the remaining two members, myself and another ninja. The other ninja used a fire jutsu with the last of his chakra and it ignited some of the surrounding forest. The wasps stopped their assault and then turned back.

We couldn't believe it and tried to figure out why. It seemed that the smoke from a certain plant will drive them off or at least docile them enough that they left us alone. We wrote down the types of plants that were ignited in the map and then realized we had no idea what to do next.

The chase had thrown us so far off that neither of us had any idea where to go. The map was still in our possession but we had no idea where we were. Trying to backtrack proved difficult as we weren't that skilled in tracking and neither of us wanted to go back to the cave and try to complete the mission. It didn't seem worth it at that point. The rest were dead and going back seemed like a death sentence even if we had those plants.

Trying to find our way back to Iwa proved incredibly difficult with no idea of where we were. We traveled for miles on our own and thought we may never make it back at all. We ended up not making it to Iwa but heading right for the border. However the war was still on and we both strayed right into the front lines in Ame.

I managed to hide the scroll before we were attacked by a group of Konoha ninja but the other chunin didn't survive. I was captured and became a POW. I thought perhaps it wouldn't be so bad as prisoners may be exchanged between countries. This had happened before when ninja were caught trespassing into another country they weren't supposed to be in. I was lucky that the mind-walk that they used during the interrogation wasn't that extensive, otherwise they would have found out about the mission and the scroll. However they just wanted to know the current layout of the Iwa defensive line and they quickly discovered that I was just part of a pair of lost chunin.

Without any important information I was put in confinement and waited for a prisoner exchange. I thought that perhaps the Tsuchikage would want me back because of the secret mission but things didn't work out.

In the time that I had been gone, a lot had happened. The Tsuchikage Mu had been killed and replaced by Oonoki. The problem was that Oonoki didn't have any knowledge of the mission, therefore it wasn't likely that I was going to be exchanged. I had been listed, along with the other members of the group, as missing in action because no one was sure where we had gone nor why we were gone so long.

Sometimes ninja that are put down on the missing in action list are also put on the list of possible deserters. Perhaps we even got placed as missing-nin, who knows. Our mission was never listed anywhere so our disappearances may have lead to our names being put on that list as well. I only knew that because I spent a lot of time working in the Tsuchikage's tower on paperwork and such. It was likely that we were labeled as deserters and Iwa would not want us back.

So, I was sent to this prison. I tried to keep up hope that someone would try and get me out of here and it was maddening considering that I still had the scroll. A decade or two after that, I learned that the Kamizuru clan had been wiped out in a failed attack on Konoha. Their bees didn't stand a chance against the Aburame clan's insects. The information that I had was at that point worthless. Even if there were forbidden jutsu in that cave, without a member of the Kamizuru clan to use them, they would likely mean nothing as they were meant for bees and bee users. It wouldn't do any good to anyone else.

Time passed after that and though I wished I could leave this place, I was still an Iwa ninja that was captured during the war. I tried to get out through legal means but I couldn't send any information to anyone in Earth Country. I suppose I just slipped through the cracks. Despite not knowing anything and being lost, I was still accused of spying behind enemy lines. Konoha wasn't about to release me and Earth Country didn't want me. I'm just one a few people that ended up stuck in this prison as a result of the ninja wars. I suppose their might even be Konoha ninja in an Iwa prison too.

I still can't be completely sure of the real reason but I've been here ever since." said the man as he concluded his story. Naruto sat silently at the end and contemplated what he had just heard. It was an interesting but sad tale.

He did wonder what became of that scroll. It seemed odd that the man was able to 'hide' it and it wasn't found after an interrogation or upon arriving at the prison.

"So where did you hide that scroll?" Naruto asked and the man raises his eyebrows and then smirked.

"I used a jutsu. I'll tell you how if you tell me how you managed to get up here without alerting the guards?" bargained the old man and Naruto thought it over.

If it was some kind of jutsu that the man was using then it might be worthwhile to get. He of course had no idea how, besides fuinjutsu, a person could hide a scroll on their body but he it might be useful. After all, he did have many scrolls with him and some were quite important.

"I came out through the yard, climbed the building and got in through one of those skinny windows." Naruto answered.

"How did you get past the cameras?" he questioned and Naruto replied, "I snuck past most of them before I found out that no one actually monitors the cameras in that security room."

The man's eyes widened slightly before he fixed his features and then fulfilled his end of the bargain. His hands formed a single handseal and his throat bulged.

Naruto watched transfixed as the man regurgitated a scroll, most likely from his stomach. The man pulled the scroll out and then smile at Naruto's expression of disbelief and slight disgust.

"Its an old ninja trick. You use a complex jutsu to create an area inside your stomach that can safely and securely hold different items. Then you can bring them back out whenever you want. I think its nearly impossible for someone else to get access to them." said the man in response to Naruto's unasked question.

The man tossed the scroll to him and Naruto caught it but grimaced as it was a little bit wet with saliva. After drying it on his leg, he opened the scroll to find the map that the man had been talking about. It was as he had described it and there was more information that had been penciled in later on in a different person's handwriting. It included various other drawings and writings which amounted to what looked to be a whole journal. It even contained drawings of plants that Naruto thought must have been the ones in the story that stopped the wasps from chasing after them.

"Its not any use to me anymore and I can't even be sure there is anything at the end of that map. Even if there was something, it can't be used by anyone since that clan is gone. You wouldn't be foolish enough to try and go after an non-existent treasure, would you?" he questioned and Naruto absently shook his head no but his mind was filled with different thoughts.

"Well you better not..." but he was cut off by Naruto, "What about that jutsu you used to hide the scroll...what would you want for that?"

The man raised an eye as he hadn't considered parting with that jutsu or any of the jutsu he had but he was interested to see what the brat would offer. "What are you willing to trade?" he inquired and waited to hear the answer.

Naruto's hand went behind his back and pulled out more material that he brought with him just in case. It never hurt to be prepared and he smiled as he remembered hearing his mother speak in his dreams.

The man smiled slightly as he looked at what was apparently a signed copy of Icha Icha Paradise and two other magazines.

'I suppose I could part with that one jutsu.' he thought and went about explaining the jutsu to Naruto.

It wasn't until after Naruto had left that he realized that the prisoner he had been talking with could use his chakra and use jutsu.

x-x

Naruto got back to his room before the guard patrol. It was far easier getting back, especially since he didn't need to worry about cameras anymore.

He didn't start looking over his new scroll as he needed to keep working on his wall walking. Even if he put off sleeping, he absolutely needed to finish learning that technique. The deadline he had set for himself was just a few days away.

However, he now knew that should he get into trouble, that he could save himself from a fall into the lava, and certain death, by using his claws. So instead of just practicing using his feet, he started trying to incorporate his claws into the training as well. They would likely leave marks all over the walls of his cell but it would be worth it if he ensured he could safely get across the gap between the prison and the tower.

He began going up the walls on all fours with his claws digging into the rock and his feet sticking on the surface. After a few hours, he was satisfied that his progress had increased and went to sleep.

x-x

Three days later, early in the morning

x-x

Running along the surface of the rough rocky terrain was a group of Konoha ninja. They were heading out to the prison to start their shift. It was early in the morning but that was difficult to tell as apparently the area they were in was always dark and cloudy because of the volcanic activity.

Moving near the middle of the pack was Mizuki. He had been waiting for his chance to get to the prison and knew exactly what he needed to do, which was to the finish the job he started when he framed the Kyuubi brat for murder. It angered him greatly that the brat had gotten off with a short prison sentence and now he would get the chance to rectify that.

No one could stop him and he was confident that the brat was as good as dead.

x-x

Sweat dripped down his face as he hung underneath the lowest overhang on the prison. He had left his cell around half an hour ago and climbed up the building in the yard. He then moved to the side of the prison and climbed down to the last overhang, then moved underneath it to the front of the building.

He was positioned right by the drawbridge and out of sight. When the drawbridge came down, he would leave his position and jump to the underside of the bridge, and then run across it. Konoha ninja would be coming from the tower and enter the facility to take over as the new shift and then the old shift would leave the facility. This gave him a short amount of time to run across the underside of the drawbridge and make his escape.

So he wouldn't get tired waiting for the right moment, he secured the ends of two short ropes to kunai that he had taken from the confiscation room and made something for him to lay on. The kunai were deeply imbedded into the wood of the overhang which created something like a rope hammock for him to lay on. This ensured that he did not get tired or had to keep holding on to the overhang while waiting for the new guards to arrive. He was laying down on the taught ropes, still underneath the overhang and out of sight.

He didn't know the exact time when the guards would change but knew it was somewhere between the three hours period of 3:00am to 6:00am just before the prisoners were woken up. Since there was a chance that he might miss his opportunity if he wasn't always in position, he came up with this simple rope method.

The only problem was that twenty feet beneath him was the lava and he was getting rather toasty.

He couldn't actually see anything except the lava so he had to rely on his ears unless he wanted to risk sticking his head out underneath the bottom of the overhand and perhaps be seen. He would not make such a mistake after getting this far.

The only thing he could do in his current position was to stare at the lava. Its movement was quite hypnotizing and he could see the heat rising off of it.

An unknown amount of time passed before he finally heard the motor for the drawbridge start.

'This is it.' he thought with a smile and dug his nails into the wood of the overhang to get himself in position for when the drawbridge came all the way down.

It seemed to take forever for the drawbridge to finally come all the way down and once it had, he came out from his spot upside-down and moved to the bottom of the drawbridge.

Making sure his feet were properly secured to the bottom, he started to move across the underside of the bridge. It was slow because he had to concentrate and he dug his claws into the bridge to make sure he had some kind of contingency in case he fell. On his hands and feet he moved just faster than walking speed.

He was being as careful as possible and could hear the new shift of guards above him moving quickly to the prison. They only touched the bridge surface a couple of times as they were jumping across. However he stayed at his steady pace. There was no room for a mistake.

It was when he was nearing the halfway point that something happened which he wasn't expecting. Someone ran by him on the underside of the bridge. Looking up, or down as it were, he saw the same man he had talked with in the infirmary several nights before. The man stopped and looked back, then said in a low voice, "Thanks for the info on the cameras, brat. You can keep the scroll its of no use to me. See ya around!" and with that he continued running to the end of the bridge.

Naruto for his part was in a daze. He managed to keep sticking to the bridge but many different thoughts went through his head.

'What the hell is going on!'

'He's pretty fast for a man on his deathbed.'

Nonetheless he got this thoughts back to the present and continued pushing on though at a much slower speed than the old man that just ran by. He at least needed to get halfway to get to the drawbridge that was on the tower. The new shift of guards had already made it inside the prison and he could hear the old shift going across the bridge to the tower.

'**Go faster!**' urged the Kyuubi and Naruto mentally told him that was what he was trying to do.

The ninja made it to the opposite side and he could hear the motors for the bridge engage to start pulling it apart. Forgoing his hands, Naruto frantically started jogging across the bridge and then running. It was possible that he would fall to his death but he had to get as far across the bridge as he could.

He ran across the halfway point as soon as the bridges started separating and started losing his footing a moment later.

As the angle of the bridge increased, he started going faster because he was moving down hill. The speed became too much for him and though he tried to slow down, his feet started to lose their ability to stick to the surface.

He veered to the edge of the bridge with what little traction he had left and once he reached it, he jumped for the the lowest overhand on the tower. At this point it was likely that he could be seen but he would rather be found out than fall to the lava below.

He soared through the air attempting to reach the tower. His aim was good, despite being upside-down, and his hands grabbed the edge of the overhand. He hung there for a second or two and then pulled himself under it.

'I'm across.' he realized with a smile and it was the first time in over three years that he was no longer on the island prison. He listened closely to see if any alarms went off and to find out where the guards that just ended their shift were. It was likely that they would go back to Konoha and he didn't want to be spotted by them.

Minutes went by as he heard the doors to the tower open and many men moving out of the tower just beneath him. Looking down he could actually see them and he just hoped they wouldn't look up. They walked out until they were a little distance away from the building before speeding up to a run and then jumping across the landscape.

There was no alarm sounded and no other indication that he had been discovered.

'But they will discover I'm gone. Probably when they do the next patrol.' Naruto remembered and knew that he needed to get moving, however, he wasn't sure where to go.

His plan only lasted until he got to the tower and he hadn't really thought about where to go once he was across the bridge.

His thoughts were interrupted however when he heard a muffled scream coming from the tower. He listened and could hear muffled voices through the thick stone walls. Then he thought he heard fighting, but things went silent after that. Though he knew he shouldn't investigate, he ended up moving underneath the overhand until he was on the opposite side of the tower from the bridge. Climbing onto the tiles of the overhang, he moved to one of the slit windows and peered in.

In the dark he could see a ninja laying on the floor with several kunai sticking in his back. His eyes widened at the site and he moved away from the window.

His heart was still pounding from his entire journey and his breathing was labored but the only thing on his mind was what had happened. Who had killed the ninja in the tower? He however did know the answer and it came to him a moment later. The man that ran across before him had obviously done it. No one else would have.

Looking back in the window, he couldn't hear any noise coming from the tower but he had no idea if there were still ninja inside of it or the white haired man.

What he did know was that the tower had supplies in it, supplies that he couldn't get in the prison. To survive, even for a short period, he needed food and water. Currently he had neither as he wasn't able to get into the kitchen and had no containers for storing water while he was in the prison.

Despite the danger, he could get all the items that were needed for travel from the supplies in the tower. The only time he left the village was when he came to the prison and he had no practical experience at traveling or surviving on the land. He only had theoretical knowledge and everything he read in the books he had told him that he needed supplies.

He had no money either and so he couldn't buy anything wherever it was that he was going. Looking back through the window one more time, he made his decision.

x-x

Mizuki smirked as he moved through the prison on his rounds. It was still early in the morning and he was on the first patrol through the prison with several other ninja. Making his way down the cell block, he moved right for the stairwell that would lead him down to solitary confinement.

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	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Inuyasha

Chapter XV: On the run

x-x

Continuation from the last chapter

x-x

Naruto continued through the seemingly quiet tower. He had already managed to pick up two ninja tool pouches off the dead ninja he passed by, but he noticed that a few of them didn't have any pouches at all. He was still looking for the supply room and anything else that might be of use to him but it was difficult because he had only been inside the tower once before and that was three years ago when he was led through it to get to the prison.

Despite the fact that he was running out of time, he needed to find what he was after so he pressed on.

x-x

Mizuki stared at the pillows that had been placed under the bed sheet to make someone think that the Kyuubi brat was still in his bed. It was such a simple trick but he didn't fall for it. However this meant that he wouldn't be able to fulfill his goal, which was to kill the brat in front of the entire prison.

He merely came down to the solitary confinement area to see the Kyuubi and perhaps taunt it a little. He never expected to find the Kyuubi brat gone and now he didn't know what to do. His plan was ruined.

'No! Not again, I won't let him get away with it again!' he kept thinking over and over again. He grabbed his head and hair in frustration and a grit his teeth as his head began hurting.

Mizuki barely noticed when another guard came to the doorway of the room to find out what was going on and found him standing in an empty cell. Nor did he really notice that guard ran down the corridor, back up the steps, and hit the alarm.

x-x

The alarm sounded throughout the prison and Kenji only cursed as he was sure what it meant. All his planning had been for nothing and Hisao had not done his part but instead betrayed them to free himself.

'Damn it!' he cursed under his breath. He knew something was likely wrong several days ago when he spoke with Naruto and found out that Hisao had not kept to the plan. It looked even worse when he found out from Naruto that Hisao could use chakra, which the man had never mentioned to him or to anyone else. 'Bastard must have found out how to nullify the manacles they have us wear.' he surmised and tried not to let his anger get the better of him.

Given that Hisao was in the infirmary, he had no method of communicating with him and though he could have ratted the man out to the guards, there was still a chance that the plan would still happen.

However, his well thought out plan was supposed to commence hours ago. Hisao had betrayed him and now he would have to deal with a bunch of irate prisoners that had expected him to come through and a signal that never came. Probably even worse was the fact that the prisoners would also be angry at Naruto as well because, though the boy didn't know it, Naruto was deeply involved in the whole plan. He hadn't wanted to use the boy the way he had but it was necessary to obtain freedom.

He stood just outside the doors to his cells as the prison was now on lock-down and the guards would likely do a roll call and check to see if all the prisoners were still there after Hisao had managed to escape. The guards needed to make sure that the man wasn't still somewhere inside the prison and to see if no one else had escaped.

"Damn it Hisao! You greedy old bastard!' he once again silently cursed. If he managed to survive the backlash of this failure then he would still have to start planning all over again, however he knew that was can't promise prisoners freedom and then fail to come through on that promise. They tend not be very forgiving.

x-x

Naruto finally found the kitchen which was one of the rooms he was after. He had already filled several containers with water and gathered a good amount of food to take with him. Sealing them up, he put the scroll with the other ones that he had.

Exiting the kitchen, he began looking for any other supplies that he might need. It might be a long journey and he might need other ninja supplies and even medical supplies. He only had a few pairs of prisoner clothes and they would likely make him stand out among anyone else.

Every ninja he had come across so far was dead, so he decided it was safe to go to the dormitory area where the guards slept. He might find more useful items there and hurried up a nearby staircase to where he thought that area would be.

x-x

Standing outside his cell while prisoner numbers were being called out and identities verified to determine the extent of the escape, Kenji could feel the multitude of eyes that were on him. He knew he would not survive the rest of the day. Most likely he would be attacked during the work shift after the lock-down was over.

He could feel dozens if not hundreds of angry gazes falling upon him. 'Shit!' he thought as he had nothing to persuade them or convince them not to kill him.

Several stories beneath Kenji at the bottom of the cell block, the warden of the prison was conversing with several of his guards. The remaining guards were all still searching the prison a second time and taking roll of all the inmates to determine how bad the situation was. One escaped prisoner was bad enough but apparently he had two.

An old man that was supposed to be slowly dying in the infirmary and the most infamous prisoner at the complex, the Kyuubi container. They weren't concerned with the old man, it was the Kyuubi they were worried about. In the three years time that the container had been at the prison, he went from the bottom to the top of the 'food chain'. Rumors ran wild among the different shifts and prisoners. Though they didn't want to admit it, all of them were afraid of the Kyuubi and knowing that he was loose was putting them in a panic. They had already tried to have the boy killed on their previous guard shift but it had failed miserably. The boy was barely injured and someone said the injury was gone the next day.

To make things worse, they hadn't been able to reach the tower on the other side of the lava lake. No one from the tower was responding but they had other things to think about right now.

"Have you found anything yet?" the warden inquired of his second in command.

"No nothing. We're still checking the prisoners to figure out if anymore are missing and we still found any trace of the Kyuubi or the old man. And the tower still isn't responding." responded the guard.

'Shit.' the warden thought as they had only been to the tower an hour ago when they changed shifts and now his head was filling with terrible scenarios. Though he didn't want to jeopardize his career, he would have to inform the Hokage that the container went missing on his shift.

"Send word to Konoha with one of the hawks. Tell them everything we know so far and ask for assistance." he commanded to one of the guards standing by him.

"We need to get as much information as we can. Who was the one that found the container missing?" he inquired of the remaining two guards.

"It was Mizuki." said one man and he pointed to the white haired man that just exited from the stairwell of the 'dungeon'.

'Has he been down in solitary the whole time?' wondered the warden as he had given orders that every ninja was to search the prison or take role. Insubordination was not something that he tolerated.

"Chunin Mizuki, where the hell have you been! This isn't a drill and your supposed to be searching the prison. Why aren't you where you're supposed to be!" he yelled at the man.

"Not here." was Mizuki's slightly muffled response and he didn't make any eye contact with the warden.

"What did you say!" responded the warden and by this time most people, guards and prisoners, were watching what was unfolding down on the bottom floor.

"He's not here. I have to kill him." was Mizuki's response.

"The hell are you..." but the warden's voice was cut off and replaced by a gurgling sound as Mizuki's kunai buried into the man's throat.

"HE'S NOT HERE!" yelled Mizuki as he removed the kunai from his fellow ninja's throat.

Mizuki looked up at the other two guards and they could see the madness in his dark eyes. The remaining guards were also stunned and there was a pause as they looked down at what was happening. The prisoners however took this as the 'sign' that they had been waiting for and were promised, so they acted. Several guards were attacked from behind by the prisoners and a riot ensued among the prison population.

'This wasn't how it was supposed to happen but it's happening regardless. At least I won't be killed for not coming through.' thought Kenji as he ran with his most trusted group of fellow inmates to the higher floors of the prison. They needed to prevent any communications from being sent to Konoha or the tower.

After that he would try and organize the riot into an actual prison escape and not the frenzy it currently was. There was only one problem that he had though and that was the fact that he was missing one key part of his original plan and that could be their undoing.

x-x

Naruto found the dormitory and acquired some medical supplies and other items. He picked the pockets of the dead ninja to get as much money as he could and took fresh clothing from several lockers in the facility. Despite the clothes being too big for him, he could likely cut them down a little and use a belt or something so they would fit better. Coming out of the dormitories and heading down the stairs, he stopped as something caught his attention.

Though the facility was dead quiet before now, he finally heard a noise.

He could hear yelling and shouts but they seemed faint. The voice did sound rather frantic and he had trouble making out what they were saying but it sounded like 'Help'.

x-x

Hurrying as fast as he could, the chunin desperately wrote down on the paper what was happening. The noise coming from below was getting louder and he could head a few of his fellow guards screaming into the radio in the communications room. It unfortunately didn't have anywhere near the range needed to reach Konoha and could only reach the tower, which apparently still wasn't responding to their messages or signals.

Rolling up the little tube, he ran up the stairs to the topmost floor of the prison. This was where the birds were kept which were the most direct method of communicating with Konoha.

He could hear noise of a riot happening downstairs and though he was supposed to send a message concerning the escape of two prisoners, including the Kyuubi container, he had instead written down a plea for help to the Hokage. Even if the rioting was taken care of by the guards in the prison, the tower was still silent.

Running up the stairs, he entered the aviary and cursed the fact that it didn't have a door, just an open stair case. Not having any jutsu to block the stairs with, he worked as fast as he could to get the message into the tube. As he worked and got the bird, the noise was getting louder and he heard shouts from the floor below him.

He pulled the bird out of the cage and it struggled with him as he attempted to secure the message tube to its leg. His hands were shaking horribly that it made things increasingly difficult. He glanced to his right and saw shadows coming up the stairs. The message was only partially attached but he needed to get the bird out.

The chunin went for the window as prisoners came up the stairs and got the bird out before he was knocked out from behind.

Kenji cursed as he watched the bird fly over the lake of lava. He had been too late to stop it and now in a matter of hours the Hokage would know about what was happening and send a contingent of ninja after them. He ran a hand through his graying hair as he tried to think what he should do next. The prison break was progressing, but it was nothing like he had originally planned.

He had come up with his plan right when he first saw Naruto sneaking out of his cell at night and heading to the confiscation room. He talked it over in the mine pit with the people he could trust and they were all for it.

The strength of the prison was probably the cell block, as prisoners were more likely to rat out a prisoner should they try to do something then the guards were to actually catch that prisoner up to something. Everyone looked out for themselves and would do whatever it took to gain an advantage over someone else. When he first met Uzumaki Naruto, he instantly realized that the boy was nothing like what the rest of the prison believed he was. Everyone in the cell block thought Naruto was a killer which was why he was the only prisoner ever placed exclusively in solitary.

This was however quite the opposite. Naruto was really a boy put in jail that was given special treatment on the orders of the Hokage. The prison population didn't know this though. Wild rumors spread about how the boy was given special privileges because the guards were afraid of him, because he had special connections on the outside, and because no one was willing to contradict him.

This became especially evident after the disappearance of an inmate named Arata. There was a group of people out to kill the Kyuubi container, but no one was so outspoken about it as Arata. The man had even double crossed two other inmates so he alone could finish the brat. With enough people bribed, Arata was going to kill Naruto and he had warned the boy about it.

But then the night Arata was supposed to kill the boy, he just vanished. Even Kenji wasn't really sure what had happened. After that, people got scared. They thought that Naruto had 'ears' in the cell block and that people were working for him. This became evident when the stupid brothers started acting like the boy's personal bodyguards.

There was a long break between attempts to kill Naruto as several inmates rethought their plans and tried to determine whether or not it was worth the risk of disappearing. While the disappearance frightened many, he saw it as an opportunity. Using his trusted friends, he started spreading rumors about Naruto. In less than a month, Naruto was viewed as being the most powerful person in the prison and Kenji became just one of the many people 'working' for Naruto.

With Naruto as their cover, Kenji began recruiting more people to him that would eventually help with his plan to escape. Kenji slowly gained Naruto's trust and Naruto had no idea how much power or influence he really had in the prison. Through Naruto they were able to control the trade of nearly every contraband that was in the prison. Only a select few knew the truth about Naruto and none of them were going to talk about it as they had much more to gain by keeping quiet and going on with the little charade.

Naruto rarely ever spoke when he was outside of his cell and always had a neutral expression. These only served to keep the rumors going as Naruto never once contradicted anything or spoke out. No one ever blocked Naruto's path and he never made eye contact with anyone or gave any indication that he was just a normal kid that was put in prison.

This however came with a price as eventually someone tried to kill Naruto and takeover as the most powerful person of the prison. He had tried to stop the attack but he didn't know when it would happen, however, Naruto survived and not only survived but killed his attacker without getting a single scratch. It took a little while but several more attacks followed. Every time Naruto was the victor. Even he was amazed by this and it only lent to the rumors and mystery that was Uzumaki Naruto, the Kyuubi containers. It greatly helped that the boy started getting more feral looking and Kenji was very supportive of Naruto's changes, even if the boy had no control over them. Few people in the entire prison wanted to mess with Naruto and the boy had developed many nicknames among the prison population.

His plan began building after that and while his friends really went down to solitary confinement to get stuff from the confiscation room, the rest of the prison was led to believe that they were actually having meetings down in the dungeon. Naruto was conversing with his advisers and top members of his 'organization' in the prison. Overtime, he was able to convince Naruto to give him and some of his compatriots a few weapons from the room. He was also able to recruit Hisao, who was a very talented ninja in his day and suffered from a ailment that could easily be aggravated and used to their advantage. Hisao had been doing that for quite some time to himself in the infirmary and stay out of work in the mine.

Knowing the schedule of the guard shift change, he had Hisao's 'condition' take a turn for the worst which put the man in the infirmary for quite some time. With Hisao in position, he could further his plans for getting out of the prison.

Being in the upper areas, there was no one to rat Hisao out and all they needed was to get the man a weapon and then he could get downstairs during the night after 'securing' some keys and start releasing the prisoners. Then they would takeover the prison before the new shift came and pose as the old shift. The bridge would be let down to allow the new shift to enter. There would be an ambush waiting and the 'old shift' would head to the tower where they would proceed to take over the tower.

With both elements taken over, they could keep the drawbridge down and escape the prison.

However, this was not what happened. After meeting with Naruto, Hisao had not kept with the plan. The man was supposed to convince Naruto that he was dying, in pain, and wanted to end his life. He had been worried that Naruto might not make it up to the infirmary but if anyone had a chance to get to the upper levels undetected, it was definitely the boy. Even if Naruto was caught, he wouldn't be severely punished unlike the rest of the prisoners.

Naruto would meet with Hisao and the man would convince the boy to come back with a weapon so he could end his pain and suffering. This did not happen however and Hisao did not ask Naruto for a weapon. Instead he did nothing.

Now he knew why that was. Hisao had likely found the means to escape the prison on his own, so he did.

Luck was on his side though and now they were free but still inside the prison. Looking through the windows at the tower across the lava gap, he couldn't see much but he could tell that the bridge was still up. Without someone lowering the bridge, they would not being going anywhere and Konoha would get there in a matter of hours to find them still stuck in the prison.

He was hopeful that perhaps Hisao had managed to get across or that perhaps the drawbridge would be let down if they could alert the tower that they needed help, otherwise he would be stuck inside a prison of escapees that hadn't actually escaped or left the prison. The situation would only get worse as Konoha would eventually come and they would probably all be killed unless they had hostages. Even then it would be a negotiation and it was obvious that the ANBU would kill them in the night or they would be starved into submission.

Picking up a nearby pair of binoculars, Kenji peek out of the window and began looking out at the tower. He tried to keep himself from being spotted by anyone that might be looking at him from the tower.

Kenji expected to see Konoha shinobi manning the tower and trying to figure out what was happening in the prison but instead he didn't see anybody. It was if the tower was empty. He continued to pan over the building with the binoculars until he saw movement coming from the control room of the tower. Kenji starred at the figure through the openings of the control room and his mouth dropped open as his eyes widened.

'No it can't be...' he thought and blinked his eyes to try and make sure he wasn't seeing things, ' That isn't possible...how the hell did he get over there?'

x-x

Naruto pushed gently on the door and it slowly creaked open. He looked around the room but the noise had stopped just before he got to the door. Now the room was completely silent but there was a body in it. However it seemed to have been dead as long as the others.

'Then where did the noises come from?' he wondered and proceeded to enter the room.

He looked over most of the room until he found a pair of headphones. He walked over to them and put them on. There was nothing but static though so he pulled them off and put them back. Glancing at the windows in the room he noted for the first time that he could see the prison and realized that people in the prison might be able to see him as well.

Trying his best to move quickly and back to the door he came from, he neglected to pay attention to the blood pool on the floor from the dead ninja.

His foot slipped on the pool and he lost his balance. His arm instinctively shot out to grab hold of something and keep him from falling. He managed to grab something and stop his fall enough that he didn't end up falling to the ground.

However he realized a second later that perhaps falling would have been a much better option. His ears instantly heard a motor coming to life and the grinding of gears. He recognized the sound as he had only heard it a short while ago. They were the noises associated with the lowering and raising of the drawbridge.

Looking to the object he grabbed, he paled slightly as he noted that it was a lever. The drawbridge connected to the tower continued to lower and he was frozen in place as he realized his situation.

'Even if I put the lever back to its original position, someone in the prison must have noticed the drawbridge on this side coming down.' he thought and tried to think of what he should do.

'Run away.' was the only thought that came to mind and he dashed out of the control room and found his way to the nearest window to leave the tower. He needed to put as much distance between himself and the prison. In his mind, the ninja of the prison would know that something was up, or already knew as they had discovered him missing, and would soon come after him.

He had no idea where he would go but would just run as fast as he could for as long as he could.

x-x

"Why is the tower drawbridge coming down?" asked one of the prisoners standing near Kenji as they looked at the lower structure on the others side of the gap.

"Are the ninja in the tower coming here?" inquired another with some urgency in his voice.

"No..." replied Kenji and he watched as the blonde haired boy ran out of the control room after giving him exactly what he had needed, "Naruto managed to get to the tower and lower the gate." he said with some disbelief in his own voice.

The men stood still and silent in some disbelief as well. They had no idea that the Kyuubi container had managed to escape and was helping them to escape as well.

"What do we do now?" asked another prison and Kenji responded, "We get the hell out of here as fast as we can! That hawk will make it to Konoha in an hour or two and we need to be as far away from the prison as possible." he ordered and the other prisoners with him went back down the stairs to spread the word and tell everyone what had just happened.

So many things went through Kenji's mind at that moment. He wanted to ring Hisao's neck and he wanted to thank Naruto for unknowingly helping him once again. One day he hoped he could return the favors.

x-x

Naruto lept from the roof and landed on the hard dark ground. He quickly recovered and ran as fast as he could. Someone was bound to know something was wrong in the tower and that he had escaped.

Jumping from rock to rock, he made quickly put as much distance between him and the prison. It was at this point that he realized he should have put the tower drawbridge back up. If he had then no one from the prison could come after him. Unfortunately there was no turning back now. He had to get out of Fire Country and so he headed north or what he thought was north.

Escaping and keeping from being captured was his only priority. If he could get across the border into another country then he may have a chance. It was possible that Konoha did have agreements with some countries to allow Konoha ninja to enter their borders but not every country would allow this. He had no idea which countries those were but he still might be able to evade capture regardless of where he went. The best thing to do then was to keep running until he couldn't run anymore. Then he would rest and continue running.

x-x

A head of white hair peeked over the top of the jagged rocks. Hisao's brown eyes watched the running boy head away from the prison.

He had managed to escape and then killed everyone in the tower. He didn't have to kill them all but he needed weapons and it was best to not leave any witnesses. Instead of helping his fellow prisoners like he was supposed to, he left them in the prison. With no one in the tower to let the drawbridge down then no one would be coming after him until a message made it to Konoha and by that time he would be long gone.

However, as he was running away from the prison he realized something. The boy he had passed on the underside of the bridge was a jinchuuriki and the container of the Kyuubi no less. He had no money to his name and that container was worth a small fortune to any of the larger ninja villages. Konoha would pay for the boys return but another country would be willing to pay even more to add a jinchuuriki to their ranks.

He therefore turned around and ran back to the tower. He couldn't let an opportunity like that pass and he could make more than enough selling the brat to retire.

Now he just needed to follow and capture the boy, then make his way to whatever village might pay the highest price. He smiled as he jumped down from his hiding place and ran after the jinchuuriki.

x-x

Konoha

x-x

The ninja monitoring the aviary looked up from his magazine as he heard an incoming messenger bird. The hawk landed on one of the tables and he got up to check its leg for the message.

As he set his magazine down and made his way to the hawk, he wondered what the message might be. It was his job to care for the birds, decode any message that came in, and send out any message that came to him in the aviary.

All in all it was rather boring. Konoha didn't send that many messages. There were updates and reports from a few ninjas that were stationed throughout the country but they only received a scant few messages from other countries. This however was completely different when the chunin exams were being held in Konoha but that wasn't for many months.

Bending down he examined the birds leg but was surprised to find nothing. There was no message and it looked like the fasteners for the message tube had not been properly attached for delivery. He sighed as he pulled out his clipboard. Forgetting to secure the message was not something that could be tolerated as messages could be intercepted if they were dropped or information could be lost and never received. Information was important and whoever had made this mistake would be getting one of the crappy assignments for the next six months.

Looking at the numbered tag on the birds leg, he then found the correct number on the sheet that was on the clipboard to determine where the bird had come from.

'Konoha Strict Correctional Facility.' he read and his eyes widened slightly. Glancing at the bird he noticed for the first time that many of its feathers seemed a little loose and it looked like it hadn't been handled properly.

The fact that the message had been lost and was not properly attached as well as the bird looking rather disheveled made him question if something was wrong at the prison. Picking up the bird, he went to the nearby Hokage tower to make a report to the Hokage.

x-x

One of worst parts of his job as Hokage was waiting. It didn't involve any work but it was one of the most stressful things he sometimes did. Waiting for updates on a situation, waiting to hear back about life or death situations, or waiting to receive a report listing casualties and survivors. Keeping busy wasn't easy in these kinds of situation and trying to get his mind off things was never that simple. It took years for him to figure out that the best thing he could do was to try and remain as calm as possible and sooth his nerves while smoking his pipe.

Currently he was waiting to hear back from the ANBU squad he just sent to the prison. The news he received once they arrived could be anything. It could have been a simple mistake by one of his chunin or it could be so much worse.

This was just another situation where he would just have to wait and see.

x-x

Kakashi moved through the forest with the three members of his ANBU squad behind him as well as the members of the Konoha prison guard shift that had been replaced just a couple of hours beforehand. His ANBU group had run into the guards about halfway to the prison and questioned them. The guards reported nothing was amiss when they left the prison and the shift change had gone by smoothly. The ANBU asked that they follow them back to the prison just in case something did happen.

Kakashi set a fast past and the large group raced to get to the prison as fast as possible. He had trouble believing that it had been three years since he had last seen Naruto. It had been quite a shock when Naruto had been arrested for murder and he had just kept to his work with ANBU and visits to the memorial stone. He hadn't forgotten about Naruto but had put off visiting the boy, despite promising to do so.

Itachi was a missing-nin and left the village while Gai had taken to encouraging a young student at the academy that couldn't use jutsu. He also heard that the Hokage had yet to ever visit the boy in the prison. So it was evident that he certainly wasn't the only one that had let the boy down.

The terrain had already changed from trees and grass to rock and open areas, so he could tell that they were getting near the prison. He just hoped nothing had happened and that Naruto was still safe.

The prison came into view almost an hour later and the sight confirmed that the worst had probably happen. The drawbridge was always kept up and yet it was now down. No one also appeared to be using it.

The group ran to the tower and entered through the opened doors that were left ajar. The tower was empty of any living person and only filled with the dead bodies of the guards that were supposed to be protecting it. The tower was quickly searched and no one was found alive. Most of the group was sent to the prison to find out what happened while a few of the prison guards stayed behind to man the tower. Kakashi briefly stayed behind as there was something he needed to do first.

Putting his hand to the ground, Kakashi summoned all of his ninken to assist him and to help track down missing prisoners. The smoke cleared from the summoning and the littlest dog was the first to speak.

"What is it, Kakashi?" asked the dog with a even expression and Kakashi eye-smiled at the little pug.

"I need all of you except Pakkun and Bisuke to tell me about the scents in the area and which directions they went in." Kakashi stated and watched all but two of his dogs start sniffing the area.

"I need you two to come with me." Kakashi said and made his way to the drawbridge. It was obvious from first glance that there had been a prison break but he now needed to figure out the extent of the damage.

For the first time in over three years he went over the drawbridge to the prison. His sensitive nose was greeted by the smell of sweat and blood. As soon as he entered the prison, he found one member of his ANBU waiting to report.

"We didn't find any prisoners left except the few that were killed in the fighting. Most of the guards are dead but a few survived and Cat is dealing with them now." reported the tiger masked ANBU and Kakashi nodded before replying, "Send a message to Konoha and the Hokage about the prison break using Bisuke."

The ANBU nodded before removing the proper materials and began writing a message he would then attach to the dog. The dog could travel to the Hokage far faster than any other means they had. While the ANBU worked Kakashi focused back on his task at a hand. He walked down the stairs in the cell block and straight for the staircase that would take him to where his real mission was. Pakkun knew to follow him and actively sniffed the area.

Reaching the end of the cell-block he descended the stairs to the lowest level. He quickly reached the bottom of the solitary confinement stairs and looked down the long hallway to the cell at the end. The door was open and he feared the worst. As he walked the long hallway he thought he might find a body or blood and wondered what had happened to Uzumaki Naruto during the prison break.

He finally came to the door and pulled it completely open.

The room was similar to how he remembered it but the bookcases were all empty. The bed had a pillow under the covers as if a person was trying to fake being under them and the only thing standing out in the room was that one of the pillows had fallen to the floor. There was no damage to any part of the room and no signs of any struggle. He walked over to the desk and found it empty. No paper, no pencils, and no items of any kind were in the drawers.

This was definitely not how he expected to find the room.

No scenario that he came up with could properly explain the room he found without implicating Naruto as having prior knowledge of the prison break. 'Who else would take the time to back everything up and get ready to leave?' were his thoughts on the oddities he found.

Given the chance, a prisoner would just leave and only take what was most important, if they even had any items of importance. Everything had been cleared out of the room. Even while rushing, it would have taken a long time to clear out the room and there was no way the boy could have carried everything with him unless he had help.

Examining the lock on the door, he found numerous scratches indicating that it had been picked many times. Most of the picking looked very amateurish and it seemed that Naruto had been able to pick the lock on his door in order to escape or had been actively picking the lock on his door in preparation for escaping or leaving during the night.

The entire time Kakashi was looking through the room, Pakkun was picking up the scent of the person that lived in the room. They smelled of metal, sweat, and fox. He had never encountered anyone that smelled of fox and that wasn't an actual fox, which he found strange. Pakkun quickly followed the scent and found that it was in the hallway and concentrated in one of the solitary confinement cells.

Pakkun told Kakashi of this and the dog masked ninja could only surmise that Naruto had spent time in solitary confinement though he wasn't sure why. Naruto's room was solitary confinement, was there any reason to go one step further and put him in a room down the hall?

Pakkun followed the scent to a door on the opposite side of the hallway that had the words 'CONFISCATION' written on it. Kakashi moved to the door and opened it to find a room with lots of empty shelves. In fact the entire room was empty.

'So Naruto left his room and then went to the confiscation room.' Kakashi thought as events played in his mind. 'But what did he need from the room and where did he go from there?' he questioned and Pakkun was already following the boy's scent back up the stairs.

Pakkun sniffed through the entryway into the yard and then stopped as he looked up to the building.

"He went this way." Pakkun said and jumped onto the roof of the prison. Kakashi followed and he picked up Pakkun as they went under the overhandg and Kakashi stuck to the surface of the wall nearly twenty feet above the lava. They moved to the front of the building and found a kunai and with rope attached to it. Pakkun confirmed that the person in the room had been there and then they both went across the top of the bridge to find the scent on the other side.

"What are you thinking Kakashi?" Pakkun asked as they hurried across the drawbridge.

"If he was taken then he wouldn't have been able to pack up his books and scrolls. With everything else we've found, it points to him escaping on his own but I don't know how he managed to pull it off. Everyone else seems to have escaped in a much different manner. He's only eight and his chakra was sealed." noted Kakashi but Pakkun corrected him, "Not completely."

Kakashi stopped in his tracks and looked at his ninken while he thought about what the pug had just said. 'His chakra wasn't completely sealed?' he realized and wondered how it had happened. The Sandaime was supposed to have sealed the boy himself.

"Where did he go from here?" questioned Kakashi and Pakkun took him on a winding path that went throughout the entire tower.

The entire time Kakashi was thinking that it didn't make sense as he couldn't fathom how Naruto could have managed to move through the entire facility while the guards were there. The kunai setup at the prison implied that Naruto had waited for the drawbridge to come down but the movement through the tower suggested that the people inside were already dead. There was no way a eight year old with mostly sealed chakra could have killed a tower full of trained ninja.

Naruto escaping after the prisoners had escaped also didn't make sense as he would have just used the bridge and not gone through the yard and around the whole prison. Pakkun said that the scent traveled underneath the bridge and the kunai setup was made to wait for the bridge to come down. He could only conclude that Naruto had escaped during the guard shift and before the other prisoners escaped but that didn't explain the dead bodies in the tower.

"Did anyone else come through this way?" asked Kakashi as he wanted to know how many people had been inside the tower.

"Too many to count." responded Pakkun.

'Damn it! Just what the hell happened here?' he wondered as things just weren't adding up. It was hard to fathom that the boy could have escaped in the first place but the the tower just confused him. 'Was Naruto's escape a separate event or was there more to it? Who killed the ninja in the tower and why did Naruto travel through the entire tower instead of just escaping?'

While Kakashi was going over the many questions he had, they eventually came to the control room for the tower. They walked in and Kakashi waited for Pakkun to turn around and walk out but the small dog went over to the lever for the drawbridge and Kakashi noticed the smear in the blood pool on the floor.

"This lever," Pakkun said and continued to sniff before he continued, "The boy was the last one to touch it." Kakashi's eye widened as heard the information.

'Naruto let down the drawbridge?' he thought and although he didn't want to believe it, he knew Pakkun's nose did not lie. Naruto must have touched the lever and let down the tower drawbridge. He would have to report this to the Hokage and he looked to Pakkun who knew the look and continued searching.

The new trail led straight out of the tower and on a path across the landscape. Kakashi stood and looked out over the jagged surface. He saw no trail or indication of anyone in the distance.

"Did he leave alone?" He asked Pakkun and he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.

"No, two scents go with him." Pakkun answered and Kakashi didn't know what to make of the information.

He turned around to find his other ninken waiting and wanted to know what they found, "Tell me about the scents in the area."

One of his larger ninken, Bull, answered in a deep voice, "No scents go to the tower, they all head away from the tower in several directions. Many of the prisoners fled in small sized groups and one group is much larger then the others, but quite a few fled seperately."

Kakashi thought about the situation as his remaining ANBU squad members arrived. He thought perhaps the tower had been attacked from the outside but this was no longer the case. He could not use up anymore time trying to find out what happened so he began giving out orders.

"Split up into groups with the ninja that were heading back to the village. We need to either recapture or deal with every prison we can. Did you send a message to the Hokage?" he asked his one of ANBU and the man nodded. "Good then your priority is the prisoners. I'll be going after the primary objective by myself." he stated and the ANBU and ninken quickly split up, going to gather the remaining ninja into groups in order to track down prisoners.

Kakashi looked back at the path that Naruto had apparently taken and wondered just what had really happened. There were so many unanswered questions and he had no idea if Naruto was alone, traveling with the two that followed him, being tracked, or perhaps being taken somewhere. He didn't even know if the two that went in the same direction with him were prisoners.

Regardless of the lack of information, he had to capture the Jinchuuriki before he left Fire Country.

Please Review

AN: If you have any suggestions for Naruto's nicknames that he received while in prison, I'd like to hear them as I haven't really been able to come up with anything unique. Please try to make them more interesting than just 'Kyuubi'. I might end up using them later on.


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